A Sorta Fairytale
by Blackrose74
Summary: He was an arrogant and pompous bastard with a noble air around him that pissed her off.She was a loud and pretty girl who had no problems voicing out her opinion that amused him. How the two ended up together is a mystery. AU. Rating may change later.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T **

* * *

**This is my first time writing a fic on Naruto so I'm really sorry if the characters are a little OOC. I'll try my best to keep their character as close to the original as possible. But anyway hope you enjoy the fic and leave a review please if you do happen to like it :)**

**Chapter 1**

* * *

He was an arrogant and pompous bastard with a noble air around him that pissed her off.

She was a loud and pretty girl who had no problems voicing out her opinion that amused him.

How the two ended up together,is a mystery.

* * *

It all started that dreadful day in the Market.

She was accompanying her mother while they wandered around the market searching for cheap foodstuffs and other essentials they would need for the following month or so. While on a sharp lookout for a good source of food, she also had to be on look out for the many thieves this market was infamous for.

They were poor. Having the food money stolen was not an option. They only had so much they could spend on food and it was her job to protect it from those pesky thieves. Her mother was constantly ill and that made it difficult for her to maintain a full time job as she also had to look after her mother but that didn't stop her and her mother from being happy. They still had each other, what more could she ask for?

Not only was the food they were going to buy had to be cheap, it also had to selected carefully. Fresh meat and fish had to be eaten quickly so there would be less quantities of them whereas there would be more fruits and vegetables as they had a longer shelf life. Not to mention the bread and other grain produces that could last even longer.

And all of it had to be within a price range.

It's no wonder the poor girl was starting to feel stressed.

She never liked these shopping trips anyway. They were tedious and long and energy absorbing. Her strength was already dwindling from lack of sleep the previous night. Her long recurring nightmare had begun to plague her again. Not only that but it was so _noisy _in the market. It took all of her resistance to stop herself from yelling at them to _shut up_.

But never mind that. All it took was for her darling mother to smile before she could feel the strength seep back into her to continue this long and horrible trip.

Her mother loved the shopping trips. It was the only time she was allowed out the house. Well the only time she was_ able_ go out the house. Normally the girl would have been away at her part time job at the Yamanaka's Flower Shop so nobody would be there to visit the market with her. Although the woman was not old, the illness had taken it's toll on her body and she was unable to walk for very long without feeling faint and collapsing. It was only thanks to her young daughter's heavy sacrifice she was able to visit the market once a month.

However the guilt that ate at her was something else. She knew her daughter only worked at the flower shop because of her. She could have gone to one of the noble houses and worked as a maid. Earning better pay and probably a better life. She might even meet a kind lord who takes interest in her and chooses to bring her into his _household_. But then she would have had to stay within the noble house and would be unable to see and attend to her mother.

Anyway being a maid was not easy. Especially not in one of the great noble houses. The work was tough and back-breaking. They were expected to wake up well before dawn in order to start preparations and unable to rest until their Masters had did so which could often be well into midnight. Not only that, but from the stories she had heard. Some Master's did not treat their servants very well. A slip of the mouth and you could be in for a beating that would render you unable to walk for several days, possibly weeks. Politeness was a vital requirement if you wanted to survive serving one of the noble houses.

The only great thing about working for a noble house was that they had accommodations for the servants. Although they were not as grand as their Master's rooms, they were well above average and compared to what many civilians had to live with, it was a luxury. The pay was also well above what the average civilian could earn. Anybody would jump at the chance to work there.

But there was a catch. In a way, by working there you would be giving up your freedom. Very little servants were allowed out the house. Also many servants had been _bought _by their Masters from slave-traders and other merchants. Bound to their Master's family for eternity, forever serving them. With no hope for release. Very little servants actually came from civilian families. Most Masters choose not to hire servants as they would have to be paid every month and human rights demanded that they could leave their post if they met certain circumstances. However they were cheaper short term-wise and look to be an appealing choice at first.

Haruno Mizuki sighed. Even though she had confidence that her daughter would make a good maid. There was no way the stubborn girl would ever consider the idea of leaving her mother all alone. Protecting her "precious people" was something her daughter had been adamant about since she was young.

She was too kind. And one day, Mizuki was sure it would destroy her daughter.

* * *

It was a rare sight to see the Uchiha heir wandering around the streets of the marketplace.

Even rarer was that a _blue_, shark like man seemed to be accompanying him.

Needless to say, they were attracting quite a bit of attention in the crowded marketplace.

Never mind that there was a strange blue man walking about freely, but what the hell was one of the nobles doing here? High classed individuals like the Uchihas do not walk about in low classed areas like the marketplace. It was simply unheard of.

Itachi could feel the stares they were directing at him but he paid no heed to them. The loud chatter slowly dissipating into hushed whispers as he walked briskly by, Kisame following shortly behind him clearly amused at the villager's reactions.

"They look afraid of you Itachi." Kisame said, stating the obvious.

Itachi stayed silent. After all there was no point in him confirming what Kisame had just said. It was common knowledge to anyone who lived in the precinct that Uchiha Itachi was not someone to be trifled with. He was dangerous and deadly. Those who crossed his path, be it on purpose or accidental often ended up _dead_.

He sighed inwardly. He was tired of his life. He was a genius, a prodigy within his clan, the very best only appearing every few generations but that's what made his life so painful. He had been nothing more than a tool for his clan. A _killing_ machine. He wasn't supposed to have any emotions and his only purpose in life was to serve his clan.

And he hated it.

Still, he couldn't just abandon his family name. As much as he despised the clan elders for shaping him into what he is now, he was glad his brother Sasuke had been left untouched. His innocence untainted by the corrupted minds of the elders. So as long as his brother was happy, he was happy.

He closed his eyes, trying to ward off the cold stares he was receiving. Most of them coming from other shinobi who held obvious dislike for him. Itachi found it amusing how he was hated because he was powerful. People were jealous of his powerful _kekkei genkai _and how those onyx eyes of him seem to penetrate anything. Obviously they did not know the price for owning such bloody abilities. He was used to such hostility shown towards him and he didn't care what other people thought anyway.

It was those terrible fangirls squeals and shrieks that left him most uncomfortable. He did not like them much but he did not want to harm them either since they were clearly infatuated with him. Despite the fact he killed for a living, they were clearly in love with his handsome good looks and cool stoic personality. But the way they were stalking him, were very obvious and he getting irritated by their actions. Itachi did not like being followed.

Before he could come up with another plan to escape those fangirls, his eyes snapped open – scaring a couple of those who were glaring at him intently - there was a loud yelp from somewhere within the marketplace. He looked at the source of interruption and saw a pink haired teenage girl restraining a young man from running away. A thief by the looks of it. The man tried to prise his self away from her grasp before receiving a sharp bonk on his head by the pink haired female who was now yelling at him loudly.

_Interesting...._thought Itachi.

* * *

Sakura saw him before he could even attempt his sneaky trick. _The hell..? _

She watched as the young blonde haired thief itched closer and closer to her mother, his eyes never leaving the money pouch her mother was holding. His hand reached for the bag...

_Oh no you don't! _Screamed Inner Sakura. Like heck she was going to let someone steal her hard earned cash!

She ran forward and grabbed the young man, twisting his arms painfully behind him, earning a loud yelp from the thief.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" hissed Sakura.

"N-Nothing! L-Let me go!" yelped the young man as he tried to free himself from her hold. Number one rule of being a thief was if caught, pretend to be innocent then run as fast as you can.

Sakura knew this all too well and whacked the man on his head to get her point across that she had no intention of releasing him at all.

The blonde paled. He did not want to go to jail! He was young and had his full life in front of him, if it wasn't that his mother had taken ill and he was in drastic need of some money to hire a doctor to see to her he would _never_ steal from people! He started to panic.

"Please...! Listen to me first!" the guy said, clearly distressed.

Her eyes narrowed.

The man gulped before continuing to explain himself.

"My mother..is very ill. We are poor and I have no money to hire a doctor to see to her." he mumbled quietly. "If it wasn't for the current circumstances, I would never steal another's hard earned money." he said quietly. His head down in shame that he had failed his mother. She wasn't going to live if she didn't see a doctor soon, and now her useless son had to go get himself landed in jail for theft.

At the mention of his ill mother, Sakura's eyes immediately softened. He could almost feel this young man's pain. Her mother was also ill and sometimes Sakura felt so useless when she could not help ease her mother's pain.

Still he had tried to steal from here and she wasn't about to let that go so easily. However they were starting to gather attention from those around them, interested in what all the commotion was about with this teenage girl and the young male. She glanced around warily, wondering how to solve the situation and spotted a raven haired man standing watching her intently. His attire told her, he was probably one of those detestable nobles. She grimaced.

Sakura didn't really want to drag the man into the nearest police station and dump him in there to feel the wrath of the officers. But she couldn't really just release the guy when she just yelled out he was a thief. What would the people think of her if she just let a thief run loose? And the fact that one of the nobles was standing there watching her made it more difficult for her to let the young man go. It was sure to cause some hassle and she was exhausted already without having to deal with all this.

Suddenly an ingenious, and almost stupid idea struck her. Oh well, it was that or nothing. However she needed the young man's co-operation.

She let go of him, and slapped her arms around his shoulders acting as if they were best buddies. "Aw man dude, you need to stop this silly prank of yours. It doesn't work on me you know!" yelled Sakura cheerfully before she whispered quietly into the guy's ear.

"I am going to let you go but it will be difficult with all these people watching us so I need your help." she whispered quietly.

He nodded, full of gratitude the girl had decided to believe him. He swore to himself he was never going to steal again. After all the next time he might not be so lucky to meet a kind person like her.

"What do you need me to do?" he said quietly. Then he laughed along with Sakura keeping up the façade of them being good friends. "Ah, my plans were foiled again." he said with a forced grin.

The other villagers,bored now that it had all just been a silly game had gone back to their own activities. Shopping, chatting and whatever else they had been doing in the market before being interrupted.

Mizuki looked at her daughter's strange behaviour but chose not to enquire about her daughter's actions. Sakura probably had a good reason to act like this. Mizuki did not miss how the look of fury disappear into something more like...compassion.

"Hmph." Unlike the simple villagers, Itachi knew that the girl was plotting something along with the young man. The way they were behaving as great friends was too fake and he wasn't about to be fooled by them. But whatever. It was getting late and he had to return back to the manor soon. He didn't have time to be watching some silly civilians play games with each other. Now bored again, he turned to Kisame and told him they were leaving. Kisame nodded.

Sakura waited until the noble had turned around before telling the blonde her plan. She knew he needed money but she wasn't about to give up her own cash for him. She needed money as much as he did. However there was _someone_ who didn't need money as desperately as them.

"See that dark haired dude over there?With the rich clothes? The one with a ponytail?" Sakura pointed, when the blonde looked confused as there was a lot of dark haired dudes in the vicinity and he wasn't sure which one she was referring to. He saw her target and looked at her quizzically wondering what the dark haired man had to do with this plan.

"He's a noble." she said. His eyebrow arched up slightly. Now he was even more puzzled.

"So?"

"Whether or not you can help your mother depends on your ability" she stated simply. "Stealing is wrong, there's no denying that fact. But if it's for a good cause then....you know." She shrugged "Besides, he doesn't look as if he needs the money as desperately as us ordinary civilians anyway." she said. Hoping he got the hint behind her words.

And he did.

But it was impossible.

"He's a noble. It's too difficult and dangerous to be messing around with those of the upper class. All the nobles are shinobi and he would definitely notice me reaching for his pouch and before I could grab it and run, he'd kill me." the blonde said dejectedly.

"Not if he's momentarily distracted." said Sakura slyly.

He looked at her with surprise. "And how are you going to manage something like that?" he asked, now curious as to what the pink haired girl had up her sleeve.

Little did the blonde know that many years of being a civilian had taught Sakura many of the dark ways of the world. And that the fact she was once a noble too made it all too easy for her to set up a trap, that even if it didn't distract the raven haired man much, would probably shock him enough for the blonde to grab his pouch and make haste with it.

Her identity would be revealed then but she was confident she could escape with her mother in time. After all, behind that huge forehead of hers, stored packs and packs of knowledge from books she had read. Sakura was very intelligent and often, she was glad since it saved her from a lot of trouble.

She told the young man of her plans. Seeing surprise in his eyes before they lit up with the ingenious trap she just conjured. They had to hurry though, if they wanted the noble to walk into their trap since he was leaving already, walking back the way he had come from.

"Go." she said in a hushed whisper.

The blonde nodded. "Thank you." he murmured. He smiled at her and she smiled back. Then he set off in Itachi's direction. Walking quickly but not so rapid that would make him look suspicious. He was glad Itachi had been walking slowly or else he wouldn't have been able to catch up with him being being spotted.

It seemed like the raven haired noble had no desire to hurry back to his suffocating life. Even when he was in his own manor, he felt like he was being monitored by his father. That kind of constricting life made him want to spend as little time as possible in the manor.

Sakura tensed. The blonde was close to reaching Itachi. Almost time now she mused. She took her mother's hand in one of her own and the other reaching for a hidden kunai.

"Hyaaa!" she cried out as she threw the kunai with extreme accuracy at the retreating figure of Uchiha Itachi.

He sensed the kunai before it even reached him. Catching it between his 2 fingers expertly he spun around to see which brave individual decided to throw it at him. Clearly interested now.

But not for long.

He glimpsed a blur of pink before large chunks of rock chipped from the arch above him and started to fall. Slightly surprised when he realised that it was the shadow kunai technique that had been used, the one aiming for him was clearly a decoy to stop him from noticing the one crashing into the brick arch. It was cleverly done, with just enough chakra power to enable a mini rockfall but not enough to shatter the complete arch.

Sakura never intended to hurt anybody. The arch was old and falling apart already but the light rockfall was enough to distract Itachi momentarily and that was all she needed. The blonde had taken advantage of the few precious seconds he was distracted to swipe his pouch and was running away already.

Now for her to escape without him catching her. The moment she kunai had hit the arch, it was her cue to escape. Already running down the street. She knew the noble was a shinobi and probably faster than her but like hell she was going to let him catch her! She knew the terrain and layout of the marketplace a lot better than him and she was going to use that to her advantage.

Itachi knew it was her who threw the kunai. He also knew his pouch was stolen and had sent Kisame after the suspicious blonde to retrieve it although honestly he didn't really care if he got it back or not. What surprised him more was that he never knew that such a skilled individual could be hiding in the depths of the civilian area of the village. The shadow kunai was what startled him the most. And the fact it didn't smash the arch into total smithereens told him that the attacker was most likely very efficient in chakra control.

And he wasn't far from the truth.

He ran down the market, shocking civilians with his astounding speed and grace in dodging them. There was no way she could outrun him especially having to watch for her mother too. He smirked to himself.

Boy was he wrong. Sakura excelled in chakra control and used it to boost her speed considerably. And coupled with her insane strength, carrying her mother while running was an easy job. But still...he was faster than her and if they kept running, he would eventually catch up to her. But she knew the terrain and the many subtle details of her surroundings very well. She smiled to herself. Time for plan no.2!

Itachi saw her trademark pink hair disappear round the corner and followed suit. Almost smacking himself in the face as he strained to stop himself from running into the wall.

"????" The Uchiha was confused. He was sure she just turned into the corner. But all he saw in front of him was a solid wall. It wasn't fake. So where did she go?

His eyes travelled around the area for a few seconds or so before he noticed a small alcove in the wall to his right. Hidden so well due to the lack of light in that area. If he wasn't so perceptive he would have never seen it at all and would have thought the pink haired girl had simply vanished into thin air. Damn! So that's where she went! He squeezed in and back out on the other side quickly, making a mental note to remember the place for next time. He ran faster, knowing he lost precious seconds with the wall.

Sakura chuckled to herself since she felt his presence growing further away from her and she knew he was now at "The Hidden Door". She had lost him. Breathing a sigh of relief she started to stop running....

Before the hairs on her back pricked up again. His presence was becoming stronger again. He was gaining in on her! "Crap" she thought. He was better than what she took him for. But she still had many aces up her sleeve, "The Hidden Door" was just one of the many she knew. She didn't want to play all her cards already so that meant she had to wrap this up quickly.

In a few minutes was rush hour. 5 pm sharp. She was going to use that to make her final escape plan. Now all she had to do was stall him enough for her to initiate the jutsu required.

So for the next minute or so Itachi found him dodging random net traps that sprung out of nowhere on the ground, most likely freshly laid to stall him. And that was not all there was. He had no idea that the girl was clever enough to set net traps _above_ him too. All done in such a short time while she was fleeing. He had a feeling she was an expert in this, she was more of the "flight" type than the "fight" type.

Carefully helping her mother hide in the straw carrying horse carriage, she made the hand seals necessary for the "Bunshin No Justu" The Art of the Doppelganger. Then the "Henge No Justu" The Art of the Transformation. Now there were two Sakuras and two Mizukis. She knew it could only provide a temporary distraction since it wasn't a solid copy of herself. But she only needed a few precious seconds to get away anyway. She got into the carriage and hid inside the straw with her mother, now feeling guilty for making her poor ill mother to do through all this escaping because of her. She shook her head. Now was not the time to be feeling guilty. She would save that for later.

The chime of the bells indicated it was now exactly 5 pm. Marking the end of a day. And as she correctly assumed, the horse carriages now began to move. The whole street would be blocked off for at least 15 minutes while the 100 carriages made their way along the street and out of the city. This was a process that happened every week and she was lucky today was one of the days.

Sakura directed her doppelganger to run across the bridge that separated the two segments of land when she sensed the noble coming in her direction. Then she masked her chakra thoroughly. Her mother would not need any masking since she did not possess any chakra at all in the first place. That was also a gift for Sakura, the shinobi chasing her would not be able to detect her mother so she was safe.

She could now see the shinobi coming round the corner. And just as she predicted, his caliber was high enough to know that the running Sakura was just a bunshin. Sakura could see he was very handsome. Dark raven hair, tied into an elegant and simple ponytail behind him. His facial expressions made him look so much older than his real age and his attire....well it was the typical grand clothes the nobles wore. A long black coat covered his simple but pristine white shirt and black pants. She could see the gold buckle of his belt and....a sword that hung there. It was the sword that surprised her. Although she could not see it very well, she could tell it was expensive. And sharp. He started to make his way slowly towards her but immediately stopped in his tracks and caught the kunai thrown at him. Spinning round rapidly, he saw the doppelganger Sakura throw another few more at him. Applying the shadow kunai technique too.

Momentarily confused Itachi paused. Then after a moment he decided to follow the bunshin. The moment he crossed the bridge, the bunshin disappeared and he spun around, knowing he was tricked.

By now the 100 or so horse carriages were in motion blocking the road back. Itachi sighed. He had underestimated this female, she was clearly a lot cleverer than he thought she was. Focusing a concentrated amount of chakra in the bunshin, she managed to get it to perform simple actions like throwing kunai and using the shadow kunai technique. Itachi was sure she was hiding in the carriage although Sakura had masked her chakra, he could detect slithers of it escaping her so he was startled when the bunshin used the shadow technique and for a second had assumed that was the real Sakura.

He had not expected her to be this skilled. He knew he should not have underestimated her but he had been too confident in himself to be wary of any small petite pink haired females to outrun him.

As soon as he was across the bridge, a safe distance away from her. She leapt from the carriage and fled with her mother. It would take at least another 5 minutes for the carriages to fully shift away and that was plenty of time for her to lose him. Smiling she headed home with her mother.

Strangely enough. Itachi found himself more amused than ever. He could feel the female on the run again and made no action to chase her. She was interesting and it was a long time since he felt anything like that. Nothing really evoked any emotion from the Uchiha heir. But she made him feel _different._

He wasn't going to let her go so easily. He smirked.

"_Just you wait. Little Kunoichi." _

* * *

**Author's Notes**

The world they are living in just now is very similar to the Victorian Times when Queen Victoria was ruling Great Britain. Except in this case it's Tsunade as the Queen of Fire Country. There is no Fire Daimyo in this fic. The Leaf Village is the most powerful and prosperous village in the Fire Country. Think of it as the capital city of a country. Queen Tsunade also resides within the Leaf Village. Characters are still the same and in this fic Itachi did not murder his clan. In fact his clan is stronger than ever, being close to the Queen and whatnot.

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There are shinobi in this fic. Genin, Chuunin, Jounin and the ANBU all exist. More info. About them will be revealed in due time! :)

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After a few re-reads, I realised that Itachi smirks alot and acts slightly OOC in this o__o Apologies.

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Sakura's family, the Haruno's were also nobles. The reason as to why she's a commoner now is...well you just have to wait ^^

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Also Sakura had always been close to Tsunade ever since she was young. The Harunos had been one of Tsunade's most trusted clans. She'd also taken a liking towards the young pink haired girl and taught her how to use her chakra to create inhumane strength. This all happened before Sakura and her mother became commoners.

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If you are still slightly confused and/or have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me! :) I'll try my best to answer them without spoiling the story for you.

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If I don't slack off (or get swamped by homework,back to school tomorrow T__T) chapter 2 should be up within a few days.

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**Your reviews are what gives me strength to keep writing so please leave a comment if you like this fic ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T **

* * *

**15 Alerts and 6 reviews...not what I expected but I'm still very grateful to all of yous who have given me a response! As much as I love reviews, an alert or favourite still means a lot to me so thank you! 3**

**Thank you to : ****snorkabuziaczek, Rajsa, screamingfangirl22, CatDevilAsian, minniemousemom ****and ****Rosenkreuz Orden for reviewing!**

**Anyway here is the next chapter,hope you enjoy it!**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

After a hard day of running like a crazed fool trying to escape from the ninja noble, Sakura had returned home, now very tired but satisfied her skills from before had not gone rusty.

She was exhausted and without further ado, said goodnight to her mother and flopped down on her bed falling into a deep slumber.

* * *

_Darkness._

_Then red._

_Lots and lots of red._

_Drip,drip,drip._

_The clock ticks quietly in the background._

_Tick,tick,tick._

_The horrifying scene of massacred bodies lay strewn across the once,grand hallway of the Kyoko household._

_She moved closer to one of the bodies. _

_A body of a young man, not much older than her with curly dark brown hair._

_She saw his once full of life sparkling grey eyes become lifeless._

_She screamed._

* * *

Sakura woke with a start. Palms sweaty and her breathing erratic. She shuddered.

"Again..." she muttered to herself.

It had taken her a long time to recover from that day's incident. Most the time she had woken from her nightmare in the middle of the night sobbing with her mother rushing into her room trying to calm her down.

But even once she calmed down, she still could not sleep. Instead she let the events replay back in her head.

These events were important. They would serve their purpose to remind her of her mission.

_Revenge._

* * *

"_Hurry up chibi-san!" yelled the brown haired boy._

"_I'm not chibi!" claimed a very small young adorable Sakura. It was the little girl's 4th birthday so she was dressed up in an elegant pink kimono decorated by none other than cherry blossom flowers. Her pretty pink hair had been tied up neatly and butterfly clips had been placed in. She was huffing slightly since she was forced to run to catch up._

"_Yes you are you're smaller than me so you must be chibi,chibi-san! Now hurry up! I want to give you something before we go to have dinner with your family." _

_The young boy led her to the cherry blossom tree on top of the hill. It was a huge tree, it's magnificence radiated out like sunshine over the small hill. _

_Some cherry blossoms fluttered past her. It was always so peaceful here, Sakura thought to herself. And so beauti-_

"_It's beautiful." said the boy with a serene smile on his face._

_Sakura looked at him. His grey eyes were sparkling so bright. The wind blowing softly at his curly dark brown hair made him look so.....pretty. Sakura blushed._

_Oh no she was staring at him now! She quickly turned away to look at the tree. Glad he was too absorbed in watching the cherry blossoms he didn't notice her staring._

"_What was it you wanted to give me?" said Sakura curiously. He didn't lead her all the way here just to show her the tree did he?_

_He grinned before running over to the tree. Signalling for her to come closer. She eyed him suspiciously before doing so. _

_He startled her when he jumped up and started to climb the tree._

"_What are you doing?! Be careful! It's dangerous!" said a frantic Sakura. Worried he might fall and hurt himself._

"_I'll be fine! Just give me a minute..." he had stopped climbing now. His hand reached out to pluck one of the cherry blossom flowers from the tree before he climbed back down. His foot slipped then._

_Sakura paled._

_He grabbed onto a branch quickly just enough to prevent himself from falling. Breathing a sigh of relief, he continued to climb back down. He was startled when he saw Sakura crying._

"_Hey..what's wrong chibi-san?" he said softly. Wondering what on earth she was crying about. _

"_You c-c-ould have d-d-died you i-i-idiot!!" she said between her hiccups._

_He took a step back. Woah! He didn't know how to deal with little crying girls! He just stood there awkwardly while she continued the waterworks._

_A moment of silence._

_Arghhh! Why does she have to be so complicated? He thought to himself. He grabbed the girl's arms and pulled her against him, embracing her in a bear like hug._

"_See? I'm still solid and breathing which means I'm not dead. Now stop crying, you'll get it all over your lovely kimono" he said cheerfully "and your father will kill me for making you cry." he said with a shudder. Sakura's father can be a tad scary at moments, especially when it came to boys and her daughter._

_She had stopped crying now. Just small sniffles every so often._

"_P-p-promise not to hurt yourself again?" she muttered quietly into his chest._

_He chuckled. "Yes. I can never hurt myself! My job is to protect chibi-san forever and ever and I can't do that if I'm hurt so I will not hurt myself again!" He looked down at the small girl's tear filled eyes and smiled at her._

_Somehow she was satisfied after seeing him smile. It always made her so happy. That smile of his was so reassuring,it made her want to just believe in him and nothing else. She smiled back then said._

"_Stop calling me chibi-san." she sniffled again._

"_Hehe okay chibi-san, whatever you say!"_

_She glared at him. Then remembered. "Didn't you have something for me?" she asked._

"_Oh yeah, almost forgot. Hehe.." he said sheepishly._

_Slowly he pulled away and opened his palm. Glad he hadn't squashed the flower._

_Then he did something that shocked poor Sakura. He got down on one knee and said to her:_

"_Will you marry me when you're older Chibi-San?" he asked seriously._

_He looked so serious, it took all Sakura had to not giggle at him. She couldn't hold it in anymore._

_She giggled._

"_I thought to propose you need a ring." she said amused by his serious expression._

"_Well....I'll get you a proper one when we're older! This cherry blossom can be a temporary substitute!" he said his face red now from embarrassment. When she didn't reply, he looked at her. Then his face fell._

"_Do you not want to marry me Sakura-Chan?" he asked sadly._

"_No! No, wait! I meant, yes, yes I do! I do want to marry you!" she said happily._

_His face lit up. "Really?" she nodded. _

"_I loveeeeeee you so much Sakura-Chan! I swear I'll protect you forever! That's my promise!" said the boy gleefully. He jumped around excitedly and started hugging Sakura. It was only after Sakura muffling something about being suffocated did he release her and turn away before starting to blush, clearly embarrassed of his behaviour. _

_She giggled at his red face. He turned around to look at her. He loved the sound of her laughter. It was so pure, like music to his ears. Then he looked down at the flower he had and motioned for Sakura to come over. She did so and he placed the blossom into her hair._

"_You look pretty Sakura-Chan." he murmured. He was surprised when the little girl hugged him._

"_You promise to stay by my side forever?" Asked Sakura. She never wanted him to leave her. She believed he would stay but she wanted him to confirm it first._

"_Yes. I promise."_

"_Thank you......I love you Mamoru-kun." she said quietly. Then she fell asleep in his arms. _

"_I love you too Sakura-Chan. I'll always be here for you. I promise." he said to the sleeping Sakura._

* * *

"Too bad you couldn't fulfill your promise" muttered Sakura quietly to herself. But then she couldn't resist a smile forming on her face.

She remembered that day.

Her father had indeed scolded him for taking Sakura out to the tree without his permission and he was not happy how she was covered in dirt from hugging him. Then when Sakura told her father that she was going to marry Mamoru-kun when she was older, her father almost fainted and chased the poor little boy around the room threatening to kill him for tainting his little Sakura-Chan. Her mother laughed while Sakura watched her father confusedly. Later they enjoyed a lovely dinner together with the Kyoko family although poor Mamoru-kun had now sported a small bump on his head courtesy of her father.

It had been one of her fondest memories of him.

She would never forget that smile of his that made her feel like the luckiest person alive.

She would never forget that laugh of his that brought so much fun to her life.

She would never forget his love that had hurt her so much after he had died.

Sakura shook her head, trying to shake off the memories. She felt like crying as the pain shot through her heart. Remembering him always made her so happy....and so sad.

She had to be strong to protect her mother. Mamoru-kun would have never wanted to see her this way.

Although it was still too early for her to leave for her part time job, she knew she couldn't sleep anymore anyway and so she got up out of bed and made her way into the bathroom to wash and cleanse herself.

Physically and _mentally._

* * *

Breakfast was a quiet affair of cereal for her and toast for her mother.

Mizuki knew something was up with Sakura but chose not to ask about it. She felt like the girl was already on shaky ground and any more, she was afraid she would _break._

Although Sakura had stopped screaming after her nightmares for a long time, Mizuki knew she still had them every so often. She could just tell by the bags around her eyes indicating lack of rest and the way her smiles were often strained. Oh how she wished she could do something for her daughter! Mizuki closed her eyes and prayed.

"_God, if you are somewhere out there, please bring kindness to Sakura-Chan. She deserves some after all she's been through and as her mother, I cannot bear to see her burden such pain in her heart."_

"Do you feel ill mother?" asked Sakura worriedly.

"No,no! I'm fine!I guess I'm just...tired." she eventually said. Glancing up warily at the clock, she bore a look of alarm.

"Sakura-Chan! The time! You need to go now!" she said in a panic.

Sakura looked up at the clock. The flower shop wasn't open till later but she had lied to her mother, saying the shop opened early and thus having to leave for work earlier than usual.

But the truth was Sakura hated leaving her mother all alone, she hated seeing her feel so ill and most of all she hated herself for being so useless. Seeing her mother's pale features would always remind her of how helpless she was.

She couldn't bear the guilt.

"Yeah I'm leaving now. I'll see you later mother." muttered Sakura. Then realising how unhappy she sounded, she lifted her face up and forced a sparkling smile to her mother. "Remember to make something nice for dinner!" she said with feigned happiness.

Her mother didn't buy it. Mizuki wasn't that ill yet to be unable to distinguish the difference between a real smile and a fake smile. But she knew Sakura did it for her sake and so she accepted it without any problems. She nodded. "Have a nice day." she said.

Mizuki saw Sakura out and watched as she continued down the road before sighing and retiring back inside. Then she sat down at the table and clasped her hands together.

"_Please God....if you're out there somewhere, please, please help Sakura!"_

* * *

"Good morning Sakura-Chan!"

"Nice to you see you Haruno-San! How's your mother doing?"

"Hey pinky, how you doing? Wanna hang out later?"

"Thank you so much for helping me the other day Sakura-San! Here's some fresh fruit for you! No need to say thank you! That would be us saying thank you!"

The villagers were always so nice to her. Such kind people. As much as she tried distancing herself from them, somehow they were attracted to her. Maybe it was her kindness. Or maybe it was just her pink hair. She always loved helping other people and whenever she had free time, she would be out and about the village helping.

The healer marvelled at her brilliant chakra control and knowledge of medicine, immediately taking her under his wing to help those ill and sickly.

The fishermen were always glad to receive her help in carrying heavy stocks of fish. Inhumane strength comes in handy sometimes.

And the shop owners just enjoyed having her company and someone to chit-chat too.

Slowly the villagers warmed up to her. She also made many new friends. One in particular was the blonde thief she had met from before.

His name was Naruto. She always thought it was cute how his name came from a ramen topping. He was loud and often sneaky, playing tricks on people all the time. But he was a kind soul, always willing to give it his all for his friends and his mother.

Just like Mamoru-kun. And herself.

* * *

Being in the police force had it's advantages. Especially when you're the head of the police and military force. He read the file in front of him with all the details about the girl and where she currently was.

"_Haruno Sakura_....so that's what your name is." he said amused. Time to pay her a visit.

Then he reached over his desk to pick up his phone to place an order.

* * *

Ding Dong.

"Hey Sakura!" the blonde said cheerfully.

"Hey Ino." she replied. She took off her coat and put on the flower shop's apron, ready to work.

"You're a bit early today." She eyed Sakura suspiciously. "But that's okay we have plenty to do anyway! Could you start by sorting those flowers in bouquets as ordered? The orders are on that list over there." Ino directed at a huge stack of papers at the desk.

She goggled at the massive pile.

".....uh sure..no problem." although she did give Ino a weird look. Since when did they get so many orders? Most the time it was just a small pile per day and she would spend most her time tending to the flowers themselves instead. Some watering and maybe fertilizer, trimming up uneven ends and cleaning up wilting flowers.

"Somebody should be here to pick it up later. I don't know how he's going to manage that but since he placed such a large order I'm sure he must be pretty rich and have one or two helpers with him." she said happily before returning to the back of the store to unwrap the newly arrived flowers.

Yamanaka Ino. A young girl around Sakura's age and now currently one of her best friends. Ino's father was a shinobi and often out on missions so the shop used to be run by Ino's mum before she passed it to her daughter. Although Ino had skill for being a ninja, her mother wanted her to run the shop instead because it was less dangerous than being a ninja and Ino had agreed withs no objections since she had always loved working in the shop.

Her mother used to be great friends with Ino's mother. She would always bring Ino along when she came to visit the Harunos. Ino had always been so cheerful and happy. Although she can sometimes be very annoying and sneaky, Sakura knew Ino had always been there for her when she needed her.

It was especially hard for Sakura when Mamoru had died and if it wasn't for Ino...God knows what would have happened to the pink haired girl. She was the one who picked her back up when she fell down so hard. She was the one who insisted she worked at the shop when Sakura needed money desperately. She was the one who listened to all her troubles and tried to cheer her up afterwards.

And she was glad that Ino had been there for her.

Arghh! But sometimes the blonde was just so irritating. She always shoved the hard jobs to Sakura whenever she could and leave the easy ones for herself.

It wasn't that Ino was mean or anything. She just liked teasing and annoying Sakura.

And she was doing a grand job of it.

Sakura sighed and went over to start organizing the bouquets. "Bloody rich bastards." she muttered. Such a large order of flowers could only mean one thing. It was for female company. Not that Sakura disapproved of giving flowers as gifts to girls but wasting them was an entirely different matter. Did the guy really need 50 bouquets? It was just going to go to waste. Sakura felt sorry for the flowers. They were so pretty and should be bought by someone who truly appreciates their beauty. Not some for some rich boy to bag himself a girlfriend.

But she had fun anyway. It was mostly white lilies and daffodils the guy had ordered and she _loved_ those flowers. She thought it was a pretty weird choice considering how red roses were normally seem as the romantic type and not white lilies or daffodils. Those were more for family and friends.

But whatever. Who cares? That was just her opinion. She rolled up her sleeves further since they kept falling down and tied her hair back.

Bouquets might look pretty and easy to organize but Sakura knew from practice and experience that it was not easy to organize such a thing. You had to be precise and have a sharp eye for choosing complementary flowers to accent the main flower itself. As Ino had once taught her. It required utmost concentration.

It was about mid-afternoon before someone came to pick the flowers up.

Ding Dong.

"Welcome! How I can help you?" Sakura could hear Ino's cheerful voice greet the customer. She heard some mumbles and then heard Ino yelling:

"Sakura! Are you done with those bouquets? Someone's here to pick them up!"

"Almost! I have one left to finish but the rest are all wrapped and ready to go!" she yelled back.

"Okay I'll get him to come in to pick them up." she shouted.

Ugh...why couldn't she just tell the damn guy to wait a minute so she could finish the last one and bring it out? Sighing inwardly she hurried up and started to sort the last bouquet.

She heard footsteps coming towards her but made no motion to look up.

"Hey..they're over there by the worktop. I'm almost done with this last one, just give me a minute." she said. Hands working efficiently away at the flowers.

"Hn." he replied.

What kind of reply was that meant to be? She was expecting a thanks at the very least. Stupid rich bastards and their bloody arrogant attitudes. Great now she was irritated and a bad mood had started to form inside her slowly.

"Are you done yet?" he asked no more than a minute later, genuinely curious.

A vein throbbed in Sakura. "Jesus, it takes time you know! But whatever I'm done no-" said an irritated Sakura as she looked up, ready to give him an icy glare.

What she saw made her blood run cold.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**Haha I'm sure all of you can guess who that is! ^^**

At the beginning of the chapter I mentioned Sakura and her revenge. I'd just like to clear it up here that she is not psycho who's going to run amok and slaughter her enemy for revenge. Her type is revenge is a little different and will make sense later on in the story.

Kyoko Mamoru is an OC I made up especially for this fic. For facial purposes I would say he looked a bit like Suzaku from Code Geass. His personality is a lot like him too. Since Mamoru = to protect. One of the most important parts about Sakura's relationship with him was their promise. His promise, that he would protect Sakura forever. Which obviously is useless now. But anyway it took me ages to find a suitable name for this guy xD. He plays an important role in this story.

Okay, I have a video project I promised someone I would finish up ASAP so I'm going to be doing that first so it'll be a while before another update. Most likely Friday or Saturday, the latest Sunday. But I'll make that chapter extra long for yous :) I have started about half a page of it so far though and I usually write(type really) very fast so no worries.

I'm still looking for people who would be interested in beta-ing this fic. Although you'll have to put up with my tardiness and lateness in sending chapters xD If you would like to help me out just drop me a PM, thank you 3

It's now very late and I'm really tired from school so I apologize for any spelling mistakes. I've only re-read this twice to make simple edits but it's possible I missed something. If you spot something wrong, don't hesitate to let me know and I shall edit it.

**Even a simple "I adore this fic" would make me a very very happy writer.**

**And happy writers update fast :O**


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T (chapter contains offensive language)**

* * *

**Thank you to all those who favourited or alerted this fic! I love you all.**

**Also a mega thank you to Princess of blah blah blah, iAdoreThisFic, minniemousemom, screamingfangirl22, Brittany, Rosenkreuz Orden, Readalot-TMB, Rajsa, snorkabuziaczek and xXxtellmewhyxXx for reviewing!**

**As promised, longer chappie than usual :) Enjoy!**

**Chapter 3**

* * *

"YOU!" she yelled! Pointing an accusing finger at the guy.

His eyebrow curved slightly upwards. A small smirk tugging at the edge of his mouth.

Just then Ino came bursting in. "What the hell is wrong Sakura?" she asked confusedly. Then she saw who she was pointing to and paled slightly.

"Is something the matter Yamanaka-san?" he asked.

"I am very sorry, Itachi-sama! This is Haruno Sakura. She is the one in charge of your flowers. Sorry for her rudeness, I apologize on her behalf!" said Ino apologetically.

Sakura stared at Ino. What the fuck was going on here? Why the hell was she apologizing? And what is Ino doing, glaring at her like she wanted to kill her?

"Sakura stop pointing at him! It's rude! And apologize to him right now!" hissed Ino.

She gave Ino a blank stare, completely clueless as to what was going on. She decided to stay silent and see where things go from here on before replying to anything.

She couldn't resist glaring at the guy though. It had been a natural reflex ever since that day.

The day she was almost caught by the shinobi noble.

Just as well the exact shinobi noble was standing right in front of her nose just now.

Her brain was telling her to run. But if she started running it would look even more suspicious. All sorts of questions formed in her head. Maybe it was just a coincidence he found his way here to the flower shop? No, that's not possible. There are tonnes of flower shops and Yamanaka was nowhere near the most popular and well known.

Or maybe he was looking for her.

But _why? _She didn't do anything wrong for this guy to be stalking her! Especially since the one who actually stole from him was Naruto and not her! She only helped Naruto by plannin...

….

Oh wait maybe she did do something to annoy him after all. Now she couldn't stop the guilty look from appearing on her face, although she did try her best to hide it and then glanced awkwardly to the floor.

The look of guilt was not missed by Itachi. He could feel the grin threatening to break through his stoic face, trying to break through his composure.

But you know, he was an Uchiha and all, it was easy to act stoic and pretend he didn't have any emotions.

After all he had been trained to hide his emotions.

Still, he was a human and sometimes there are things you cannot control. Before he could say or do anything though, she broke the silence.

"Who are you actually?" Sakura asked looking at him with a curious expression. Then she yelped as Ino whacked her on the head, excused Sakura and herself and dragged Sakura to the store cupboard.

"Idiot! That's Uchiha Itachi you're speaking to so casually!"

"..."

"He's one of the highest ranking nobles! His family is the head of the police and military force of the country! Don't tell me you've not heard of him before?"

"..."

"Argghh! What am I suppose to do with a dope like you?" Ino said exasperated.

"I'm not a dope!" she shouted back angrily. "I don't keep tabs and records on local nobles you know, how am I supposed to know he's a noble? And a high ranking one too...." she trailed off.

_Oh no. If he was back for revenge then she was royally screwed. Haha royally screwed, what a joke. Oh no, man, now was not the same to be joking around! She was totally and utterly mega screwed!_

If she decided to run for it, he would be able to track her down now he knew her name and her workplace. What about her mother?! Was she going to be in danger too? They would never be able to outrun him this time, petty tricks only got you so far. We are talking about the Uchihas here after all. His family was the head of the police force and had many men were under their control. They could easily issue an arrest for her if she tried to flee.

Okay so running was not an option. Her best bet was to act innocent and pretend she didn't know what was going on.

_Like that was going to ever work._

But if he had wanted to capture her, he would have done so back when she was wrapping up the bouquets. There was no reason to wait till now to act.

Unless he had something sinister hidden up his sleeve for her later but Sakura shoved that thought out her mind. This was Uchiha Itachi we were talking about! He's a busy man, he wouldn't have time for small civilians like her.

But obviously he had enough time to order fifty bouquets of lilies and daffodils and come to the flower shop to stalk her.

Unless he wasn't stalking her.

The odds weren't high. But she had to hope for the best.

"Sakura..are you okay?" Ino's worried voice broke through her thoughts.

She nodded slowly. Then said solemnly, "I'll go apologize to him just now." After she finished the sentence, she left the cupboard and headed back to where he was waiting.

He had been examining the shop while they were away, scanning the area and taking notes in his brain. Such had been a natural reaction since he started work at the police force. It was crucial to be aware of your surroundings at all times, even if you thought it was safe.

The shop was fairly small, with only 3 rooms. The largest being the front room where he had come in from, the majority of the flowers was on display here, there was also the work room he found Sakura in at the back where all the flowers had been cut and processed before packaged into bouquets for sale and the store cupboard where they kept all their supplies.

Albeit small, it had this nice comforting feeling. Almost like a tiny cozy home.

He looked up when he heard footsteps coming in his direction.

Emotionless onyx eyes met wary emerald ones.

He didn't say anything but he was shocked when she bowed her head.

"Uchiha-sama, I apologize for my rudeness earlier on." she said.

"Itachi." he said in reply.

"..?"

"My name is Itachi. No need for such formalities _Sakura_." His voice was so smooth, it had sent shivers up her spine.

"..uh okay Itachi-san." Okay, so now what? She was saved from making any decisions when Ino came into the room and motioned for Itachi to come to the front room for payment of the bouquets.

Which reminded Sakura that was the main reason of his surprising visit here today. She sighed and gathered up the bouquets before bringing them to the front of the shop. She dumped them on the worktop and went to water the flowers, trying her best to ignore the Uchiha.

Which wasn't really working. He had this aura around him that made Sakura curious to find out more. She didn't know she had been staring at him until he startled her by talking.

"Yamanaka-san, I would require some assistance in bringing these bouquets back to the mansion. If also possible, could you have somebody to arrange them too?" he inquired in a polite manner.

"Yeah no proble..I mean Yes, Itachi-sama, that can be done. I shall have Sakura follow you back to the mansion and arrange the flowers in a most appropriate manner." Ino blabbered. It was hard talking trying to talk politely to higher-ups.

Sakura had been contently watering the flowers until what Ino had said finally registered in her mind.

Wait...what?

Did Ino just say her name?

Don't tell me she just agreed to have _her_ go to _his_ house to arrange some flowers?

No,no she must have been hallucinating. Yes that's right. Lack of sleep meant she was probably hearing things. Sakura went back to watering the flowers, which were now drowning and pretended she never heard her name being mentioned.

"Sakura!" yelled Ino. "Could you please follow Itachi-sama and help him arrange the bouquets in his manor?"

Damn, she wasn't hallucinating sadly.

"No! I'm busy just now, sorry!" she yelled back. Hoping Ino would change her mind and go herself instead.

"You can water the flowers later! I need to wait here for the next delivery of fresh flowers so I can't go myself." She said walking towards Sakura. She startled the pink haired girl when she snatched the watering can away abruptly and whispered into her ear.

"Sakura..just go please. I want to keep my shop in one piece." she said sadly.

"NO WAY! Did he just threaten to smash your shop in if you didn't let me go with him?" asked Sakura in horror. She never knew he was one of those who resorted to violence if they didn't get their way!

"NO! I meant..he kind of implied that he wanted you to specifically be the one who escorted the flowers back to the manor." sighed Ino. Then a sly smile formed on her face. "It seems like he's interested in you forehead, nice to know you managed to bag yourself one of the best." she said, nudging Sakura towards his direction. "Go on now, I'll handle the shop."

"Wait! INO!"

* * *

And that was how Sakura found herself following Uchiha Itachi of all people back to his house to arrange flowers.

Yes, you heard right. To arrange flowers.

It was obviously a ploy to get her to come along quietly. I mean, surely there there had to be at least one maid in his household that could arrange flowers! You do not need experts to help do such a petty job.

He was plotting something and she knew it. They had travelled in silence ever since they left the shop and the silence was uncomfortable to Sakura. She fidgeted about in her seat. Yes her seat! He had insisted she got into the carriage along with him, saying it was "quicker" than her walking there. It sounded like a command and Sakura could do nothing except obey it. There was only the two of them in the carriage and it was unnerving for Sakura since the bouquets had been placed in a separate carriage behind them. She looked outside at the passing streets, trying to take her mind of the handsome guy sitting in front of her and listened to the quiet trotting of the horse.

Wait.._handsome_? Where did that come from?

She shook the thought out her head and concentrated on the views outside.

Across from her the Uchiha smirked to himself.

He could see she was agitated and nervous around him and he found it highly amusing how this was the same Kunoichi who was brave enough to throw kunais and run away from him. She had been so fierce, like a lioness when he first met her and now she was reduced to a quiet, nervous little puppy.

It had been easy for him to find her, after all the police force had records of everybody in the area, along with contact details and addresses in case they ever needed to found. All he had to do was request a search for any pink haired individuals in the area and _voilà_!

Her unnatural hair colour wasn't the only reason he found himself curious about the girl. She was a Kunoichi and those were _rare_. Not only that but she was a pretty good one too, her chakra control was excellent and she seemed to be hiding more skill than what was on show just now. No worry though, he'll be able to get the rest of it out of her later.

But what really piqued his interest was her surname. Haruno.

He had heard his father mention that name before. It was a top class secret about what happened between two of the most prestigious clans ever: the Kyoko's and the Haruno's.

Rumour was it the Haruno's had slaughtered the Kyoko's entire family due a disagreement with the heirs marriage.

One of the heirs being no other than Haruno Sakura.

Personally he did not believe that such a high ranking family could commit something so scandalous but the investigation had been carried out by Lord Danzou with enough evidence supporting the fact the Haruno's had been the ones to commit the massacre.

But this was Danzou we are talking about, the guy was so sinister and evil he could probably conjure up realistic evidence out of nowhere.

Another reason that strengthened his belief the Haruno's were innocent was that he had heard that the girl was madly in love with the Kyoko heir : Kyoko Mamoru. The two had been childhood sweethearts and their marriage had been arranged by their parents ever since they were children. Why would the Haruno's suddenly choose now to cancel the marriage? And even if they did, they could probably reach a negotiation of some sort so was it really necessary to slaughter the whole household?

Also the important fact here was the whole household was slaughtered.

Why?

That would result in nothing but trouble and he knew the Haruno's were not stupid.

Someone had plotted all of this out from the beginning and he suspected Danzou was the one behind it all. Just as well he had his own section of assassins, ANBU Root, to help him carry out his dirty jobs.

Itachi never liked the old geezer anyway. He was ruthless and evil and had often tried to get Fugaku, his father to join him in his crazy schemes. His father had refused though, he would never do anything that might tarnish the Uchiha name in any way.

He closed his eyes and proceeded to mull over his thoughts quietly. Then he brushed the thoughts out of his head. Now was not the time, just now he had this little pink haired Kunoichi all to himself. Time to carry out his payback!

* * *

It was clear that Itachi was toying around with her.

He had been constantly stopping the carriage and venturing out to look at random stalls and shops in the street, dragging along poor Sakura with him. If he thought he could annoy her by wasting her time then he was sorely mistaken. Sakura would not fall for such a thing.

…

_A little while later, after ten stops at random shops. They were now looking at wooden ornaments._

...

"Itachi-san." she said through gritted teeth. "Are you aware of the time? It is getting late now and I have many matters to attend to so could we please save the shopping trips for another time?" she asked politely, but anyone could detect the hint of edginess in her tone.

"My apologies Sakura, I had forgotten about the time." he said with an amused expression on his face.

She glared at him. "Don't give me that crap. You're doing this to get back at me for that day!" All sense of politeness were now gone from her voice leaving only anger.

"And which day are you referring to?"

"You know what day I'm talking about!"

"As a matter of fact Sakura, I am a very busy man and cannot be expected to memorize what I do every day so no I do not know what you are talking about." he said calmly.

Sakura was nowhere near as calm as he was, in fact she was close to reaching her limit of tolerance for the Uchiha. His expressionless face just made her more frustrated by the minute.

"You know what? I've decided that I don't like _you_." she stated as a matter of factly. "So can we please just get the job done so I don't have to stand here and resist the temptation to smash your pretty face in? I'm sure your lady admirers wouldn't want that to happen." she said all-too-sweetly.

His eyebrow twitched at the "lady admirers" but he quickly composed himself again.

"Get in, we are leaving." his monotonous tone suggested to Sakura that he was slightly agitated at her words.

Somehow the thought pleased her.

She got in the carriage with no problems and they proceeded with the journey to the Uchiha Manor.

* * *

Sakura couldn't stop the gasp that escaped from her lips when she saw the manor.

_Wow.....just WOW!_

It was like a fairytale castle, the walls were made of a soft grey brick that when sunlight reflected on them, made them look pure white. It was beautiful.

Itachi examined the girl in front of him who was staring at his home in awe. He found her abrupt changes in attitude and mood very interesting, especially how she was back to glaring at him now after marvelling at his house's architecture.

"We're here." he said.

"State the obvious why don't you." she retorted back, annoyed that he had caught her staring at his manor. _Dammit, _she was supposed to act cold and uninterested and here she was, making her interest in his house so glaringly obvious. Oh well, at least he still had her acid tongue to deal with. Hehe.

"Hn."

She wanted to pull his hair out so he could at least reply properly. "Hn" is not a word! Ugh...she decided she was going to ignore him so she could keep her temper in check while she was at his house. Sakura knew that proper etiquette was required when dealing with nobles of the sort and she was not going to bring anymore trouble to herself by behaving like an uneducated child.

They made their way inside where servants had greeted them. Well just Itachi anyway, since it's not like she was anyone special.

"The bouquets should be arranged in the hallway and dining room area, if there are any spares then you may also place some in the lounge." he stated.

She nodded and was just about to leave to get this godforsaken job done as quick as possible when she heard this shrill voice that gave her a sense of foreboding.

"Itachiiiiiiii~!" said a all-too-cheerful voice behind her.

"Shisui. What brings you here?" asked Itachi calmly. Sakura wondered how this guy managed to keep his face so calm all the time. He must have willpower like crazy to be able to keep a straight face that didn't show any emotion.

"I'm hurt! Is this how you treat your lovely cousin who comes out of his way to see you in his busy time?" he asked, pretending to be hurt by Itachi's question. Then he noticed Sakura quietly snickering behind Itachi.

"Oo...and who might this pretty young lady be? She your girlfriend? Ha, about time to got one!" he said with a grin. "Now poor Auntie Mikoto won't have to worry about your orient-"

"Shisui. I asked why you were here." interrupted Itachi.

"To see you and your girlfriend of course!" Shisui said with a smirk.

Itachi was getting exasperated by his cousin's countless attempts to try and get him to crack. He always did this and it annoyed him to no end.

Sakura unable to control her laughter anymore, snorted to herself.

The two men snapped their heads towards her. Did she just snort to herself?

Uh oh, she could feel their stares and tried to turn her snort into a cough. Cough cough. She kept coughing, hoping their attention on her would dissipate once they realize she was just coughing.

"Are you okay?" asked Itachi. His eyebrow was slightly raised indicating that he didn't believe her attempts in covering her snort.

"Uh..yes, I'm fine thank you." she said. "I was er..choking so I was trying to cough it out." she replied.

"You were choking on air?"

"Yes..NO, I mean, I wasn't choking on air..I was just er..coughing." she said quietly. Her face was getting red! Oh no! Why couldn't she control her laughter? Now she was spluttering rubbish like a fool. Great.

Shisui snickered to himself. Aww she was so cute when she was all red and embarassed!

"Hey, hey!" he said to Sakura. "So what's your name beautiful?" he asked sweetly.

_The hell_...Itachi was hoping that he was wrong in thinking Shisui was interested in Sakura.

"Haruno Sakura, er...Shisui-san." she replied, giving him a wary look.

Shisui raised his eyebrow. Did she say Haruno? He looked over at Itachi who nodded. Ah, so this was the Haruno family's heiress. Shisui was one of the few nobles who knew about the secret of what happened between the two clans. Such a shame he thought, looking at the pretty girl. Both he and Itachi believed that the Harunos were innocent but without any evidence to support their claim, they could do nothing.

"Cherry blossom huh? Suits you dear." he said nicely. "Although how a nice girl like you got saddled with such a boring guy like Itachi is something that amazes me." he said with a smile.

"Thank you Shisui-san but you are mistaken, Itachi-san is NOT my boyfriend." she said while smiling sweetly back at the guy. _This guy is annoying_, she thought. But at least he gives you some sort of response unlike another certain Uchiha.

Shisui faked a look of alarm on his face before turning to Itachi who confirmed what she had said by nodding.

"Oo..does this mean I can ask Sakura-san to be MY girlfriend?" asked Shisui with a hopeful look on his face.

"No." Itachi's voice was strong.

"Aww, but why?" Shisui asked hurt by his reply.

Itachi said nothing. But Sakura could feel his aura telling Shisui to back off.

"Um..well I better go and arrange the flowers now, so if you'll excuse me Itachi-san, Shisui-san." Sakura said. She wanted to get out of here fast. She bowed politely then ran off.

"I was kidding Itachi, I know she's your property." he said, his arm around Itachi's shoulder.

"She is not my property."

"Ah but she will be soon." Shisui said slyly.

"Hn." he couldn't think of a comeback for that one.

* * *

Sakura was happily arranging flowers when Mikoto saw her.

_Almost done!_ She thought happily to herself. _Then I can leave, YAY!_

"Hello there." Mikoto said to Sakura.

She was startled when the woman spoke to her. Oh no, she didn't know who the woman was so how should she address her? The woman saved her from any trouble by speaking first.

"I'm Uchiha Mikoto, thank you for arranging the flowers." she said smiling.

"Ah, you're very welcome Uchiha-san." said Sakura bowing. She was a very pretty woman with long dark hair and very kind looking onyx eyes, which strangely reminded her of Itachi's.

"Just call me Mikoto. Uchiha-san is too formal for my liking. So what's your name?" she asked.

"Uh..I'm Sakura...Mikoto-san." Strange, this woman was a lot like Itachi. Although not as stoic and emotionless. In fact Sakura found her presence very welcoming and warm.

"Such a beautiful name! It really suits you since you have such lovely pink hair and you're very pretty too! I love your emerald eyes, they look as if they're sparkling!" she said smiling.

Sakura had decided she liked this woman.

"Thank you Mikoto-san, I love your eyes too. They're so...warm and they kind of remind me of someone else I know..." she trailed off. Great now she was thinking of the stoic bastard again.

"Oh you mean Itachi? He's my son, a lot of people have said our eyes were very much like each other! He was the one who bought all these flowers too, he never forgets they're my favourite." Mikoto said happily, her eyes sparkling at the mention of her son. Clearly she was very proud of him.

Itachi. Son. Mother. The chains linked up. Sakura groaned inwardly.

This pretty woman who was standing in front of her and talking to her so enthusastically was _his_ mother.

What is this with her and meeting so many Uchiha's in the one day? It was just suppose to be a simple flower job!

Oh wait, it was already far from simple when he ordered her to come to his house.

"..." was all Sakura could manage for the moment while the information was being processed in her brain.

"Do you like white lilies and daffodils too Sakura-san? I saw you looking at them very fondly when you were arranging them earlier on." Mikoto asked politely.

"Uh..yes they're my favourite." she replied weakly.

"Wow we have similar tastes in flowers!" said the woman happily.

Sakura could only nod. This woman was so kind and nice to her she felt guilty for behaving so badly in front of her son.

Not that he didn't deserve it but it still left a horrible feeling in Sakura.

"Oh no! Would you look at the time? I have to go now Sakura-san. Dinner should be starting soon and I must see to the preparations, after all Itachi did go to huge lengths to organize this birthday dinner for me!" she said cheerfully. "I hope to meet you again Sakura-san!"

"Me too Mikoto-san." she replied. Mikoto gave her a smile and then turned to leave.

Sakura watched her walk away and was about to return to sorting the last batch of the flowers when Mikoto came running back up towards her.

"Um.." she began nervously. "I know this might sound abrupt but er..Sakura-san, would you like to stay for dinner?" asked Mikoto, her eyes full of hope.

"Uh...I would love to but Mikoto-san, is this not your birthday dinner? It would be rude for an outsider like me to interrupt such an important family event. Maybe another time?" she replied. As much as she liked the woman, eating dinner with Itachi and his family was not something she was prepared for.

But Mikoto was not ready to go down without a battle. She merely wanted to know if Sakura was busy or not. If not, then there was no way she was leaving without having dinner.

"I insist, it's rare for me to find any female friends for company. A birthday dinner is not a very fun event when you're stuck surrounded by a tonne of boring stoic males for company." she complained.

"But.." began Sakura.

"No buts. Please? Don't leave me all alone on my birthday!" Mikoto said with puppy eyes. Nobody could resist those puppy eyes of her and Mikoto knew it.

Sakura was just the same as the others.

"......okay then, if you insist." said Sakura tiredly.

_Yess!_ Thought Mikoto. "Thank you so much Sakura-san!" she exclaimed.

"Just Sakura is fine." she said. Somehow having a member of the nobles refer to her with such politeness made her feel somewhat awkward. It used to be okay when her family were still nobles but now she was only a commoner. Their difference in status was vast.

"Okay Sakura-chan! I'm so happy you agreed!" Mikoto said with joy, then she gave Sakura a warm hug before leaving for the kitchens again.

Sakura sighed and went back to the flowers. What on earth had she gotten herself into? She had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

* * *

Of all the many seats Mikoto could put Sakura in, she had to pick the one right next to _him._

It made her wonder if it was deliberate.

To say the Uchiha's were startled when they found out Mikoto had invited Sakura to dinner was an understatement but they knew better than to question Mikoto's actions. She might seem like a calm and quiet lady most the time but behind that sweet smile of hers lurked a darker Mikoto that would not hesitate to make their lives hell.

And they knew that from experience.

Poor Sakura was feeling more nervous by the minute. _Why are all these damn Uchihas(apart from Mikoto obviously) so damn intimidating?! _

There was the one next to Mikoto which she presumed must be her husband who just surveyed her quietly, almost as if he was analyzing her inside his brain. Then there was Itachi who was as silent and stoic as he could ever be. Across from him was Shisui the cheerful dude and next to Shisui was somebody Sakura had never seen before. Although judging from the scowl on his face and the glares he was darting in her direction told her that he didn't like her at all.

_Fine by me, I don't like you either_. Thought Sakura. She never had any intention of becoming friends with any Uchihas anyway. Mikoto was a special exception since she befriended Sakura first.

"Hey guys! I don't think I've introduced yous yet but this is Sakura-chan here! She was being such a darling arranging all those flowers I thought I'd invite her to dinner!" said Mikoto with a smile.

"We've already met before Mother." said Itachi.

"Really?" said Mikoto with surprise.

"Yeah." chided Shisui.

"Oh....okay. Let's have dinner now then." The rest had waited for Mikoto and her husband to sit down first before sitting themselves. Then the servants brought in the food. They were tucking into the good quietly and Sakura was glad the evening was almost over before Mikoto broke the silence.

"So...how did you guys meet?" she asked Itachi curiously.

Sakura froze.

_Oh no_. He wasn't going to tell her that she was a thief was he? Well technically she wasn't a thief, she was only assisting the thief but Sakura guessed that was bad enough considering how their family was the police force. She prayed with all her heart Itachi would not give her out.

"I met her when I picked up your flowers this afternoon." he stated.

_Phew!_ She had never been so worried in her life before. Guess she owed the guy one after all for not busting her. She continued with her food, staying silent.

"What about you Shisui? Were you at the flower shop today too? I don't remember you mentioning it..."

"No no!" Shisui interrupted before Mikoto could finish. "I saw Sakura-san when she arrived with Itachi."

"With Itachi..?" echoed Mikoto. Sakura could see her onxy orbs gleaming with something almost like...hope.

She did not like the way this conversation was going.

"The flowers Mother. I required a flower assistant to help arrange them." replied Itachi.

"Oh." She saw a flash of disappointment flash across Mikoto's hopeful eyes before they returned to their normal self. It was so quick that Sakura wondered if she had imagined it.

They resumed their quiet dinner.

Then the Uchiha head startled them all by talking for the first time she arrived.

"Itachi, how old are you now?" asked his father.

"21 father." he replied.

"Hmm...." The Uchiha thought about it for a moment. "About time then." he finally said.

"About time for what?" the boy with the scowl across from her spoke for the first time.

"About time your brother produced an heir." replied the Uchiha as a matter of factly.

Silence.

"Fugaku, don't you think it's a bit early for that darling? Itachi isn't even married yet." asked Mikoto with concern.

"That can be arranged." he said bluntly.

"WHAT? You can't force brother to marry someone he doesn't even know or like!" said the young boy angrily as he shot up in his seat.

"Quiet Sasuke." said Itachi calmly.

"But..!" he stopped short when Itachi held up his hand to prohibit him to speak any further. He slumped back into his seat and sulked.

"Stop sulking Sasuke." said Itachi. The boy ignored him. He then turned to his father.

"Father, I would like the chance to find myself a wife first before you make any hasty decisions for me."

"You have not shown any interest in finding a wife for these past few years. How can I trust-" began Fugaku.

"I can assure you father, that I am most certainly interested in the female species and the only reason I have not mentioned the idea of a wife is because I have not found one that I deem worthy of the Uchiha title." cut Itachi.

Silence again.

Sakura fidgeted in her seat uncomfortably. It amazed her how the Uchihas could discuss such a important topic in front of a stranger like her. Especially when Fugaku implied that Itachi might be gay, he was so blunt to the point that Sakura had felt awkward for the guy.

When Itachi justified his actions like that, Fugaku had no choice but to admit defeat on the topic.

"Fine, whatever. You have 6 months to find someone and if you can't then I'll find one for you." he sighed.

"I will find someone." was Itachi's reply.

"Hn." said his father.

It had gotten so tense in the atmosphere, Shisui was sure he was going to suffocate soon if he didn't do anything. He decided to lighten the atmosphere. That was what he was good at anyway.

"Don't worry Uncle Fugaku, it's only a matter of time. After all he already has a girlfriend!" he said cheerfully.

When silence greeted him, he knew he had said something unexpected. And bad.

Sakura cannot believe her day could get any worse. Her head was hurting now from all the drama and she wished she could leave. She didn't think she could handle any more of the Uchiha family's affairs.

"WHAT?!" yelled Sasuke. Since when did his brother have a girlfriend?

"What are you talking about Shisui?" asked Fugaku sternly.

"Yeah, Shisui what is this about Itachi having a girlfriend? We've never heard anything about it before." said Mikoto worriedly.

"Er...." Great, he just landed himself in even more trouble judging by the killer looks Itachi was darting in his direction.

"Well?" Fugaku asked.

"WHO IS IT?!" screamed Sasuke.

"Say something Shisui!" Mikoto said.

Sakura started to feel a little dizzy and sick. And all their shouting and yellings were not helping her feel any better. She could see Itachi glancing at her from the side with a concerned look.

Shisui was not usually such a wimp but when it came to Itachi's family he had forgotten what it was like to be cornered like that. He needed to make up someone quick... He glanced at Itachi and noticed his eyes on a pink haired individual who now looked very pale.

He raised his fingers slowly and pointed weakly in her direction. _I'm sorry Sakura-san, forgive me!_

"Sakura...." said Shisui.

Their eyes darted over to her direction. Demanding an explanation.

The last thing Sakura remembered was 3 pairs of onyx eyes looking at her with mixed feelings before blackness took over her.

Fugaku with his eyes demanding for some kind of explanation.

Mikoto with her eyes curious as to what was going on.

And Sasuke with the ones that looked as if he wanted to kill her right this moment.

Then she fainted.

* * *

She blinked a few times before she noticed she wasn't in her own room.

"You're awake." said a voice quietly.

A voice which sounded very much like Uchiha Itachi.

Her assumption was confirmed when he moved into her line of sight. She groaned inwardly when a sharp burst of pain shot through her head as she tried to get up off _his_ bed. What on earth had happened to her?

"You fainted." he answered. She looked at him. Was he a fricking mind reader now? Good, if he was, then he should know how much she hated him.

"No I cannot read minds." he said amused. Sakura just blinked at him.

"It's just I can guess what's going through your head right now and thought I'd save you the other of asking by answering you first." he said smugly.

"Whatever." she said. Wow she had never heard him speak so many words at once before. Wait, what on earth was she thinking? Marvelling at his speech skills now was not something she should be doing!

She got up slowly and turned to the window. It was dark and the moon was shining brightly.

Damn. It was getting late, her mother would be so worried!

"I need to go now." she said quickly.

He nodded. "I shall escort you back."

"You..what?" Sakura was surprised.

"I do not like repeating myself Sakura." he said quietly. Then continued. "I apologize for my family's behaviour." he said solemnly.

She was startled. Uchiha Itachi apologizing? This must be a dream..no wait a nightmare. Yes anything which included him was a nightmare.

Sakura started to get up before falling back down again exhausted. Ugh...she could feel a cold coming on and wanted to do nothing except snuggle back into bed. Her bed, not his.

She gasped when she felt his strong arms wrap around her waist to help her up. Then he knelt down and motioned for her to jump on his back.

"No." she said sternly. She was not getting on his back for a piggy-back ride home! "I can walk fine thanks!" she said angry that he thought she was too weak to stand on her own two feet. Sakura stomped towards the door and no more since she had taken two steps, a dizzy spell hit her and she almost fell over.

He caught her just in time. "Let me carry you, you are in no condition to be travelling and it will be quicker." he said staring at her weak flushed face. She was very warm, must be a fever he noted.

She tried to protest but stopped after he gave her a stern look. His eyes weren't their usual colour she noted. They were now crimson and before she could ask what the hell was up with his eyes, tiredness overtook her and she fell into a slumber.

* * *

He glided through the trees as easily as he was flying and within moments he was outside her house. He looked down at the unconscious girl he was carrying. Although her face was still flushed red and her hair ruffled and messy from all the struggling, he noted that she was actually very pretty. Her face was heart shaped and her skin looked smooth and creamy. She had long eyelashes and a pretty large forehead too, he snorted to himself. No wonder she was such a clever little Kunoichi.

"What do you think you're looking at?" Said Kunoichi was now awake. And not happy by the looks of it. He hoped it was the fever's fault and not his. It won't do for her to hate him now he was actually interested in her.

"Hn." he said before letting her down slowly.

She shoved him away roughly when she was standing on her own feet and muttered a very quiet "thanks" before rushing to her door.

"Goodnight Sakura. I'll see you later." he said to her retreating back.

"Whatever. I don't want to see _you_ later." she grumbled before slamming the door just to show much she disliked him.

He smirked to himself and left. Not before noticing a pair of green eyes looking at him intently from one of the windows in her house.

Mizuki sighed as she watched the man leave as quickly as he came. _Must be a ninja_, she thought. Then she heard Sakura grumbling as she stomped upstairs to her room, obviously in a bad mood.

She turned back to the window and stared at the moon for a long time.

She remembered the serene look the man had on his face when he was looking at Sakura. It had been a truthful and real smile she saw, she knew it from the bottom of her heart.

Maybe God did hear her prayers.

Maybe this was the man he sent.

The very man who would be able to help her daughter.

Mizuki smiled lightly, she hoped he was.

* * *

He stayed up for a long time thinking about what he should do in the future.

His father wanted him to find a wife as soon as possible but Itachi was lost as to who would be suitable. Girls were a dangerous species, he had to be careful when it came to selecting one he had to spend his life with. He shuddered as one of his fangirls came to mind. No, definitely no. Then a few rich noble heiresses flashed in front of him, those stuck up and picky girls were a definite no too. He slowly shifted through the database in his head before he came to a pink haired girl.

She certainly intrigued him. She was not like other girls, she was loud and brash. She said whatever she wanted, regardless of who the recipitent was and she was not afraid to speak out whatever was on her mind. She was strong, although not as strong as him. She was a protector he thought and he liked the sound of it. Her name also had a nice ring to it, "_Sakura", _he said to himself.

He decided she was going to be the "one" but now he needed to get her to feel the same way. He had a feeling she would not react kindly to his plan and would probably not hesitate to "smash his pretty face in" as he recalled. Not that he had any intention of letting her do so but he did not want to antagonize the Kunoichi.

He would have to play his cards well. He smirked as a plan began to forumlate itself in his head.

* * *

Fully rested, Sakura was now back to her normal cheery self. She and her mother shared a nice breakfast of toast and tea before she left for work, a little bit later than she normally was. Mizuki knew Sakura was in a good mood today and she felt happy for her daughter.

She said goodbye to Sakura and then got ready for the daily household chores. Just as she got the supplies ready, she heard a knock at the door.

"Coming!" she said, hurrying to the door. She was not prepared for what she saw though and she couldn't help the gasp that escaped from her lips.

"Hello Mrs Haruno, is it possible for me to come in? I have an important matter to discuss with you."

The man standing in front of her was none other than the one she saw yesterday.

She nodded slowly and opened the door wider to allow him inside. Then she told him to take a seat before heading to the kitchen to prepare tea. When she came back, she noticed that he hadn't taken off his coat, which implied that this meeting was going to be short.

"Here." she said, handing him a cup. She didn't prepare anything special, just simple green tea. She knew the man was a noble, judging by his attire but she had no intention of sucking up to him. He was going to be treated equally like the rest until she found out his reason for coming here.

He took a sip of tea. It was very nice he thought, the woman must have practiced a lot of tea making from before. "I have a proposal for you." he said.

"This proposal concerns my daughter doesn't it?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" she inquired. There must be a reason for him to come to her instead of Sakura. And she wanted to know why.

"I have a feeling she wouldn't react very nicely when she hears of this." he replied.

"And what makes you think I will?" she was testing him now and he knew it. This was where he had to make sure his answer hit the spot or his plan would be ruined. He had to get her mother on his side before anything could work out.

"Because you care for her." Mizuki stayed silent. Waiting for him to continue.

"You want the best for her." She gasped lightly and then looked at him with sad eyes.

"You know she won't be able to receive the best life here." he continued. He could see the tears forming in her eyes but knew he had to continue.

"You know that the best for her would be to leave here."

She sniffed and held back her tears. The next part was important. A moment of silence passed. Then he said.

"I can give your daughter the life you wanted for her." he said finally.

She closed her eyes. And then she opened them, a new determination was now visible in her eyes. She smiled then said.

"Let me hear your proposal."

* * *

It had been a busy day at the flower shop.

Since she was away at the Uchiha's yesterday, the pile of jobs for her had stacked up and Sakura spent all day trying to clear it. Ino wasn't helping much since all she did was badger Sakura for information about what happened yesterday which Sakura had no intention of telling. Her meeting with the Uchihas was something she wanted to remember _forget._ And she couldn't concentrate on forgetting it if a certain blonde kept interrupting and reminding her of it every two seconds.

So when it was 5 pm exactly, Sakura took the chance to run off.

She was going to have to face Ino's wrath tomorrow but she can deal with that later.

"I'm home!" she yelled. She could smell something delicious cooking. She went to the kitchen to find her mother preparing dinner. She was surprised to see all of it were her favourite foods.

"Wow, something good happened today Mother?" she asked sweetly. Her mother gave her a sad smile.

"Nothing in particular. Go get changed Sakura, it's almost ready."

"Okay." Sakura headed upstairs to get changed out of her work clothes. She washed herself quickly in the bathroom then went downstairs to tuck into dinner.

After a nourishing meal, Sakura was beginning to feel tired. She was about to retire to her room for the night when her mother stopped her.

"Sakura...I have something to tell you." she began solemnly.

Sakura was now worried. Her mother looked so pale. Oh no! It wasn't her illness getting worse was it?

"Mother! Are you okay? It's not about your illness is it?" asked a concerned Sakura.

"No... it's not about me. It's about you."

"Me?" she asked confusedly.

"Yes."

She motioned for Sakura to sit down before she started.

"You won't be working at the flower shop anymore." she said. Her eyes were glued to the floor and somehow that filled Sakura with a sense of foreboding.

"What are you talking about mother?" Sakura was puzzled.

"You won't be staying at this house anymore either." Mizuki said. She tried her hardest to keep her voice still but it was so difficult trying to get the words out without breaking down.

"What...?" _Did her mother just say what she thought she said? _"Are you...are you...abandoning me?" said Sakura quietly.

Mizuki said nothing. Her tears were already flowing down her cheeks.

And so were Sakuras.

Mizuki sniffed and wiped her tears on her sleeve. She had to think positively. At least by acting this way, Sakura would be able to accept the truth easier by hating her. She would be hurt but at least Mizuki knew her daughter would have a much better life than she would be if she stayed here. And someday maybe, the wounds she was inflicting on her daughter right now would heal. And if the man had stuck to his promise, maybe the wound would heal even faster.

She looked up at her daughter's tear filled emerald eyes. Those emerald eyes she had inherited from her mother. They were full of hurt...and betrayal. She looked at her straight in the eye and in her strongest voice she said.

"I've sold you over to Uchiha."

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Haha I'm evil. -gets whacked by flying objects-

Wow, longest chapter I ever written. 15 pages, double the amount in the first chapter. Only about 8k words in this one though I think. I used a lot of dialogue in this chapter.

Next chapter should be up by tuesday or wednesday. This one will be a little bit shorter than the rest though. But I promise the ones after that will be back to normal length.

I don't think I mentioned this in the first chapter but Haruno Mizuki is an OC of mines. I've been searching for Sakura's mother's name with no avail so I thought I'd just make up one.

Shisui is awesome, well from what I've read of him anyway. Somehow he reminds me a bit of Naruto. Being Itachi's best friend and whatnot and always the one to cause trouble for his friend. I've been dying to write about him for ages!

**Even a simple "I adore this fic" would make me a very very happy writer.**

**And happy writers update fast :O**


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T (chapter contains offensive language)**

* * *

**I fail so much D: I had said this chapter would be up by Wednesday at the latest and it's now it's almost the end of Thursday. Sorry!**

**Thank you to Readalot-TMB, snorkabuziaczek, minniemousemom, screamingfangirl22, Princess of blah blah blah, xXxtellmewhyxXx, Aki-lion-pwns, cherryblossom-hime18, Melodi Moon, Gobi5no5Houkou, Rajsa, cherryjubilee, omnipotent Porunga and Rosenkreuz Orden for reviewing the last chapter!**

**Chapter 4**

* * *

"You...what?" asked Sakura in disbelief. She could not believe what she had just heard. This woman standing in front of her must be an imposter. Her mother would never do such a thing! They had promised each other, that no matter how poor they were, they would always stay together forever and ever.

Everything would be okay as long as they had each other.

This woman was clearly not her mother.

"The proof is on that contract by the table. I already signed it and regardless of your opinion on this matter, you now belong to the Uchiha." she continued.

Sakura glanced over at the table. Then said "You are not my mother! Where is she?! Where did you hide my real mother?" she yelled frantically searching the room for something that both of them knew didn't exist.

"....There is no need for me to lie Sakura. Read the contract and you will understand." Mizuki's tears had stopped now. She had to be cold and harsh, otherwise the plan would fail. She couldn't act soft now but every time she said those hurtful words at Sakura, she could almost feel her own heart being stabbed. She couldn't help but wonder how badly Sakura's own heart was hurting, and that hurt her own even more.

"I..you...HOW COULD YOU?!" she screamed. The pain unmistakable in her voice. She was shaking so badly now, trying her best to not break down.

"I had to." was her mother's reply.

"You...betrayed me....your own daughter! Your own flesh and blood! What kind of a mother are you?! You don't deserve to be one!" Sakura started to back away from the table.

"I...I...hate you so much I can't stand it." she said angrily. Then she turned around and stomped up to her room. Mizuki could hear the slamming of the door, and then the sobbing came.

She fell down on her knees and sobbed herself. Her heart felt like it was shattered into a million pieces, the bond that connected herself and her daughter was no longer there and it felt so...._empty._

Upstairs, Sakura was not any better than she was.

* * *

The next day Sakura got up extra early to avoid her mother. She had decided during the night she was just going to pretend nothing had happened.

About the contract, she took that with her when she left the house.

Now as she sat on a box, watching the remains of the contract burn she thought about what was going to be happen between her and her mother's relationship. After Sakura had calmed down from the aftermath, she had thought about the issue for a very long time and then the many holes and gaps between her mother's words had started to form in her mind.

She knew her mother better than anyone else. She never did anything without a good reason.

Trouble was Sakura didn't know what the reason was for this peculiar action. It was so surprising it took her off guard and for a moment she left her emotions rampant instead of using her brain to calmly assess the situation. She palmed her forehead.

Someone must have planned this all out and forced her mother to co-operate. Somehow she can just imagine a certain person doing that, but why did her mother go along with this plan? Something was not quite right here, her mother could easily decline the offer so why did she choose to accept it? What good would she gain? Money, yes was an important factor but they weren't that desperate yet plus she knew her mother would never sell her own daughter for something as mediocre as money. They used to be nobles after all, they had their own pride to defend. Her mother would never do anything that would result in the Haruno name being dirtied.

Not that it wasn't already thanks to the _incident._

But nobody knew about the incident. It was all covered up by the Queen and the rest of the lords since something so scandalous could never be made known to the public. The media had been threatened to keep silent about the matter and anyone who spoke of the incident without permission was to be silenced immediately.

In any way deemed possible too.

Sakura was an intelligent girl. When she didn't let emotions flow so rampantly, she could calmly dissect and analyse a situation before coming up with possible reasons and counter measures. This is why this was so troubling to her, there wasn't enough pros to match the cons and an imbalance meant something was _off. _She pondered about it for a while before shaking her head. There was more to this and she _will_ find out what it is.

Once the last scrap of the paper had sizzled and the fire had burned out, Sakura left for Ino's flower shop.

* * *

She was not prepared for what she saw just outside the flower shop.

Instead of an angry blonde female waiting outside the flower shop it was now a stoic raven haired man. _Fantastic, _thought Sakura. Just when her day couldn't get any better! She continued walking towards the flower shop, determined on ignoring him. However he wasn't about to let her go so easily....

"Sakura." he said. The word had sent shivers down her spine, goosebumps forming on her arm now but she brushed the thought away. What was it about this man that made her so...nervous? It was like he possessed some unknown aura that made her uncomfortable every time she was around him.

She ignored him and was about to open the door to the shop when his strong muscled arm clamped down on hers. "Let me go." said Sakura, her patience beginning to wane. Soon she would snap.

"Where do you think you are going?" he asked. Sakura focused her eyes on the door handle, resisting the temptation to look at him in the face. She knew she was not going to be able to hold in her temper if she looked at his oh-so-calm-face that made her annoyed. She would end up yelling like some crazy banshee and she was sure he wouldn't take to it very kindly which would no doubt cause some hassle on her end.

"To work. What else?" she said through gritted teeth. Was he an idiot? He just saw her working here yesterday!

"You no longer work here." Itachi said calmly. He was amused as to how the Kunoichi was pretending she didn't know about the contract.

"Oh really? And how do YOU know?" she asked angrily. She had given in and turned around to look at him which was a big mistake on her part. As soon as she saw his onyx orbs, it was like she was sucked into an entirely different universe. It made it hard for her to control her emotions which she didn't like. And the way he narrowed his eyes made her feel somewhat...a little frightened.

He looked down at the girl in front of him, he was not pleased at her reaction to his question but he had expected no less from the Kunoichi. After all it was her fiery temper that got him interested in the first place but still it irked him that the anger was directed at him. He had assumed she got the notice about the contract from her mother and judging by her actions just now, he can tell it wasn't a pleasant experience and he felt slightly guilty for sabotaging their relationship with this plan of his. Not like he had a choice though, his fathers mission to get him attached to a girl as soon as possible was starting to get on his nerves.

He had a little less than six months to get this Kunoichi to fall for him.

Which wasn't going to be an easy job,he mused to himself, looking at the way she seemed to reject him in every possible way. Her eyes were wary of his actions and the way her shoulders tensed told him that she was in a stance where she might flee any moment. His grip on her arm tightened ever so slightly.

Sakura resisted a wince, his grip was tight but she wasn't hurt, just a little uncomfortable being in such close proximity with the Uchiha.

"I was under the impression that you now belong to me." he stated.

"Well your impression was wrong!" she yelled. Her anger was boiling now. "I don't belong to you!"

"This contract says otherwise." he whipped up a piece of paper that looked very familiar to the one Sakura had burned earlier. Her eyes widened.

"YOU!" she screamed. She twisted her arm out of his grip and pointed a finger at him accusingly.

Itachi sighed. _The finger of blame again. _Somehow this reminded him of the time when Sakura had first saw him standing at the flowers shop. Her alarmed face and the paleness that came afterwards made him amused. The thought brought a smile to his face which he quickly turned into a smirk instead.

"I will not tolerate you calling me anything other than what I tell you from now on. You belong to the Uchiha and I will not have your horrible manners erupting whenever you feel like it." he said calmly, his face back to being unreadable again.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the Uchiha.

"Like I said, I am not your property. The contract is invalid since the signature is not mines." she stated the obvious. Although her mother's signature had been clear on the contract, it was still missing hers and therefore not a full operational contract. He couldn't take her away. She smirked at the Uchiha, knowing that he had lost.

"It is in every right, a valid contract." he replied.

"Like I said already, it's not!" Sakura was getting tired of trying to prove her point to the Uchiha. "It's missing my signature."

"It doesn't require your signature." he said.

"What do you mean, it doesn't require my signature? Of course it does! I'm the one who's being sent away to work at your house! Of course it requires MY permission!"

"You are only 17. You have no right to decide anything until you are 18 and in the meantime, whatever your mother signs immediately comes into effect."

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said, her eyes had turned away from him now and she was staring back at the door handle. She was afraid he could see the deceit in them that told him she was lying. Sakura fully knew that the contract had been valid, that's why she took it into her own hands and burned it. She didn't think he would have made a double. When the Uchiha had whipped up the extra copy he had brought, she knew deep down she had lost the fight. But she refused to give in.

Itachi looked up at the sky. It was still early but he had to get Sakura back to the manor soon so he could get one of the other maids to help her get started on their jobs. They would be extremely busy later on in the day and he didn't want to be the one telling her what to do and what not. Not to mention, she would probably try and inflict pain on him in every way possible and he wanted to avoid that.

"You don't have a choice. Come." he commanded. His tone was final and Sakura knew it. She shook her head before glaring at him again.

"Make me! Like hell I'll go and work in your house, especially not since you're around!" she spat.

Itachi sighed again. He didn't want to make her any more angrier than she already was. The more they talked, the more they seemed to argue and the more time they wasted. _Seems like I have no choice_, he thought. He closed his eyes and summoned his chakra.

Sakura gasped when he opened them abruptly. The last thing she remembered was red eyes that looked like a demon before darkness came over her.

* * *

_Mizuki's eyed widened in horror. "Are you asking me to...to..sell my daughter to you?!" she asked incredulously. It had got to be some kind of joke, this was the most ridiculous plan she had ever heard of!_

"_Yes." came his calm reply. He knew the woman's outbursts was something to be expected. He did drop a bomb shell out of no where after all. It was only natural._

"_How on earth does this benefit us? The only one getting any sort of profit out of this is you!" she yelled at him._

"_She will have the perfect life when she becomes my bride." he replied calmly. Explaining was going to take a long time, but that was okay he had patience._

"_She doesn't love you! How can she be happy with that? The only one she ever loved has died..." she trailed off. Then she shook her head again. "This plan is so absurd, I refuse to help you with it. Please leave now." she motioned to the door._

_He looked at the woman for a moment before opening his mouth._

"_One day the wounds in her heart will heal. She will find another to love, as much as it will hurt her she will definitely have to move on sometime. I am merely offering my help in that process."_

_She stared at him. What was this man thinking of, trying to justify his stupid plan? All it does was make him look stupid. Mizuki had expected better of this man, hoping he was the one who could help her daughter but all he had was a stupid plan to make Sakura hate him more than she already did._

"_You know don't you?" he asked quietly._

_Her eyes furrowed with confusion. Then the next minute, she was coughing violently. The blood poured from her mouth, ugh... her illness was getting worse. She wasn't sure as to how long she'll last in this state. One day she will inevitably die leaving Sakura all alone..._

_All alone...the words echoed in her mind and then the tears formed._

_One day she will have to leave her precious baby girl. She would no longer be there to protect Sakura when she died, her baby will have to fight and defend all by herself with nobody there to help her. The thought was horrifying. She did not want her daughter to be suffering all alone, it was too painful. Mamoru's death had already left Sakura in a half-dead state and only recently she had been recovering from the tragic incident. What would happen when she died too? It will only bring her pain..._

"_She will not be alone." he answered. Mizuki only looked at him with sad eyes. It was like he knew her every thought and it pained her to know that the only solution to this was to follow his plan. She cringed at the thought of Sakura being his wife when she had so openly rejected his affections only the night before. Sakura held obvious dislike for this man and it hurt her mother that she was going to have to leave her in his hands after she knew how much Sakura hated him._

"_I'll be there for her...no matter what happens." _

_His voice was so serene and truthful, it had startled her for a moment. She wasn't expecting that. Maybe the guy was really falling for Sakura. She wasn't embarrassed to admit that her daughter was pretty. Guys had been flocking around her since she was young although she had brushed them away easily since she only had eyes for Mamoru. But every thing changed after he died._

_Now there was a guy in front of him who was willing to put up with Sakura's bad temper and offer her daughter a chance at a better life. How could she say no to him? _

_But it was hard to get the words out. She could never sell her own daughter! She loved her too much for that. They had promised each other to stand by each other no matter what happened. As long as Sakura had her, they would be fine, they had overcame so much to be here just now and Mizuki didn't want to let that go._

_But she knew that the happy time they shared now wasn't going to last very long. Soon she would be breathing her last and Sakura would be all alone in the world because of her mother's selfish wish to keep her daughter by her side. Mizuki couldn't bear to think about the pain it would cause Sakura._

_Itachi sat quietly while watching the older woman think. He could see the thoughts swirling around in the woman's mind and it had made him feel bad when he realized that he had just shoved a lot of unnecessary bundles of pain on the woman. It was obvious the woman had thought about the issue of her death before but never had she been struck so plain in the face with the problem and forced to solve it quickly._

_In the end she made the decision that he knew she would make. Regardless of how selfish the woman might be, he knew she would risk anything for her own daughter. It was just what a mother would do to her children, he knew since his mother had always tried to help his side when it came to arguments between him and his father. His mother would never dream of standing up to her husband so openly but when it was about her sons, she couldn't sit still and just accept what was thrust at them._

_Nonetheless, his father had certainly been startled and although he was in charge he couldn't really hurt the woman he loved so much so he had listened to her concerns about their sons with no arguments. Itachi smiled at the memory._

_His smile fell when he thought about what he was going to do with the Kunoichi. Sure he had liked her since they first met and as much as he hated to admit it, she certainly interested him. But that was all. There wasn't anything more than interest there and he was afraid that one day he will end up hurting the girl when she fell for him. He shoved the thoughts out of his head, he will cross that bridge when it comes._

"_Please take care of her. I couldn't bear it if she was hurt again." whispered the woman, her voice was so quiet, it was barely audible ._

_He nodded. He had no intention of hurting the Kunoichi after all. Even if he did, it wouldn't be intentional. That he can promise the woman._

_Mizuki smiled. Her time in this world would be up soon. But now she had no worries, she could pass on peacefully. Sakura won't be alone any more...._

* * *

She was still asleep he noted.

After knocking her out with his Sharingan, he had carried her to his house. It was amusing to see the shocked facial expressions of the servants when he came home carrying an unconscious girl over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He had left her in his room before leaving to carry out his duties for the day. Nothing much except for a briefing about a short mission to the neighbouring country, a simple assassination of a threat, nothing he couldn't handle easily. Any mission paled in comparison to what he was about to undergo with the Kunoichi. He wasn't used to dealing with angry females and trying to get them to fall in love with him.

It seemed like he had went a little heavy on her since she was still asleep when he came back late. Although he was partly to blame, he also knew from the rings around the girl's eyes that she had trouble sleeping recently and was using this chance to catch up. Unwillingly of course.

He took off his shirt and sat on one of the chairs to watch the girl sleep. He found himself oddly entranced by her peaceful features while she was asleep. She looked even more beautiful to him when she wasn't threatening to smash his face in. Although he had no doubt that if she caught him staring at her just now, she would not hesitate to put that thought immediately in action.

Sakura woke to a room that was unfamiliar to her, she blinked slowly allowing her eyes to adjust to their new environment. For a moment she thought she had been knocked out and kidnapped until she remembered what had happened before she was knocked unconscious. She shot up in bed and immediately her eyes went to the man who was naked from the chest upwards staring at her. She hissed at him.

"Who do you think you are taking me by force like that?!" she yelled angrily.

"Nobody special in particular." he smirked.

"Dammit! Why are you always like that? Thanks to you I've been literally torn away from my home , forced to leave my mother and now I have a throbbing headach.." she trailed off.

She didn't have a headache. That was weird. Normally her head would be splitting due to her nightmares creating a hassle when she tried to sleep, never mind she was forcefully knocked unconscious only a little while ago..she glared at him.

He only raised his eyebrows in mock alarm before walking over to her. Sakura could only watch with shock that a...partially naked man was walking...towards her...towards his bed. The thought filled her head with alarm. She jumped out the bed and was about to make a run for it out the open window before her hand was grabbed and she was pushed back on the bed forcefully. Her eyes widened in fear.

He was annoyed when he saw the fear in her eyes. Did she really think he would stoop as low as that? He was an Uchiha after all and they had their pride. He said calmly "You need to rest."

His calmness irked her. Now sure that the Uchiha wasn't going to try anything improper she decided to let him have her rage. "What do you think I've been doing for the past..good knows three quarters of the day?" she said irritated.

He raised a brow at her. "I had to. You didn't look as if you would come willingly."

"You know, generally when people find out they've been sold and forced to leave their homes, they tend to act a little angry. Maybe if you interacted with humans a bit more then you might learn something." she retorted.

His eyebrow twitched slightly. "What are you implying?" he inquired.

"What? That you're an antisocial and arrogant prick?" she said smoothly, looking up boldly at his onyx eyes alerting him to the fact she was not afraid of him.

_Antisocial huh..?_ he mused to himself. He smirked at her and leaned closer towards her face. Resisting an laugh inwardly when he saw the fear light back up in her eyes. She shut her eyes. _"Oh my god...what is he doing!?" _and just when she thought he was a proper man who wouldn't take advantage of innocent girls! He stopped when his mouth reached her ear. "I can show you myself being more...social,if you want _Sakura_." he whispered in her ear seductively.

Sakura had to stop herself shivering from his voice. His voice was so silky and her breathing hitched for a second when she felt his warm breath on her skin. Then he chuckled. The chuckle was enough for Sakura to snap out of her trance and just as she was about to knock him off her with a very painful punch to the chest no less, he got off her and walked over to the bathroom.

"Sleep." he commanded. She snorted. "No."

"Sakura, I do not want to force you to sleep again." he muttered before opening the door to the bathroom. When he turned around he saw her looking around confusedly. He chuckled to himself, she was so cute when she was confused. "You can sleep on the bed." he said.

Her head snapped back to scrutinize at him with suspicion. This time he really snorted out loud. "I'm not going to try anything..._improper _while you're asleep." he said smirking. Her eyes almost popped out at his statement. Then she controlled herself and asked with a concerned face "What about you?"

"I'll sleep on the couch. Is that okay with you now?" he asked amused at her sudden change in attitudes. She kept him entertained all the time with her mood changes and he was glad she had such a temper, otherwise it wouldn't have been any fun at all to tease her. She probably didn't even know her emotions could be read like a book on her face.

"Hmph." was all he heard when Sakura shuffled back into the covers. He sighed at her lack of action but he was surprised when he heard it. Her voice so muffled and quiet, the words had barely been audible.

"_Night." _

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Okay I thought I had to clear up the reasons behind Sakura's mother's actions from the previous chapter since some of yous had thought it was an selfish act. She didn't want to sell Sakura but since she was going to die soon due to illness, it was only fair she found someone else to take care of her daughter so she wouldn't be alone and just as well Itachi had popped up at the time :D

This chapter is different from my original plan. I had decided that the interaction between Sakura and the rest of the Uchiha household can be slotted into the next chapter instead. So this chapter mostly contains the reason behind her mother's actions as well some more interaction between Itachi and Sakura themselves. More of the characters from the Naruto fandom will be making an appearance soon though yay!

Which reminds me that with prelim exams coming up at the end of this month and the beginning of the next , as well as many unfinished and overdue video projects, I am temporarily putting this story on hold. But wait! It's not as bad as you think! I'll still be writing during this time period except that updates will be made weekly instead. This also gives me the chance to properly plan out the rest of this story since so far I've only written basic outlines of what each chapter contains up to chapter 5. Which isn't much when you think about it. I've estimated so far that the fic should be around 20 chapters. Maybe more or less depending on the length of each one.

Also I have a very annoying habit of repeating what I've said before as you may have noticed. Sometimes I end up writing two paragraphs with basically the same idea but worded differently. Apologies for that, be sure to let me know if you find something very noticeable and I'll go change it. I also noticed I seem to be a huge fan of the ENTER button LOL xD Seems like I've forgotten about something called paragraphs....

I am still hesitating as to whether I should make this fic an M rating or not. It's just I might be including some content that might not be very comfortable for a T rating fic. Nothing severe though and no lemons, maybe some suggestive content but that's about it really, so let me know your thoughts about the rating so I can adjust the story with that in mind.

Strictly T rating or slight hints of M? I could always put the rating as a warning before the chapter in case some of yous want to skip it but in most cases I don't like writing pointless M content unless it's vital to the story so...yeah..

Anyway next chapter should be up on Sunday! Which will be a decent length! And then weekly after that. I hope.

**Even a simple "I adore this fic" would make me a very very happy writer.**

**And happy writers update fast :O**


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T (for offensive language ahem!) / M (just a tiny tiny bit, hardly noticeable :P)**

* * *

**Thank you to snorkabuziaczek, minniemousemom, This Fairytale is for Real, Princess of blah blah blah, LilPurrfection, Rosenkreuz Orden, Rajsa, The Reveiwer known as Name, Somebody and screamingfangirl22 for reviewing the last chapter!**

**Here is the next one, hope yous enjoy it since I certainly did writing it!**

**Chapter 5**

* * *

He was nowhere to be seen when Sakura woke up. The only evidence that showed that everything wasn't just a figment of her imagination was the obvious fact she was not in her own bedroom. She looked at the clock groggily and sighed. _7:20am_. Time to get up and head to work, Ino would have her head if she turned up late again, not that the blonde wasn't going to kill her anyway for not turning up yesterday....well that wasn't her fault really. She didn't exactly ask to be kidnapped and taken to the Uchiha house as a maid, if there's anyone who should be complaining it should be herself.

She trudged towards the bathroom, _his_ bathroom technically, knowing he wasn't anywhere nearby made her feel a bit more comfortable. She didn't think she could function properly if he was around. Sakura had a lot of problems when it came to containing her temper and no doubt he would not be happy about that when confronted by the pink haired girl.

The bathroom was very nice she noted. It had a simple white design with hints of black along the tiles, almost like a normal civilian bathroom. The only thing that gave away the fact that this was nowhere near a ordinary bathroom was the gold taps and the sheer size of the room but she had expected no less of the Uchiha household so it wasn't very surprising to her.

She slipped off her clothes and stepped into the shower, pondering for a while about whether it was really a good idea to be doing this. She was in a foreign place after all, she didn't know what might happen to her, what if there were traps? That wasn't really possible since this was his room which he probably won't let most people into and anyway who sets traps in their own bathroom?

Well maybe _he _would but somehow she doubted it.

Sakura sighed again and turned on the faucet, she was greeted by a cascade of pleasantly warm water. She allowed herself to relish at the touch of the warm liquid before hunting for some soap and hopefully some shampoo too. Sakura wasn't vain but that didn't mean she didn't care about her looks, being a female meant she had to take care of her appearance since you never know when it might come in handy. Her shishou had taught her that and she smiled at the memory of the day when her teacher had lectured her about being a Kunoichi and it's advantages on missions.

_It had been a sunny day and she was outside in the royal garden with her teacher. Normally around this time they would be training her taijutsu but today was different. _

"_Now Sakura, I'm sure you already know by now that missions aren't always assassinations right?" Tsunade had asked her pupil, also the heiress of the Haruno clan._

"_Yes, Tsunade-sama! There are also intelligence gatherings, object retrievals, scoutings and political hearings." she answered._

"_Correct. Although there are many more than that but today I am going to tell you about a different kind of mission since one day you will inevitably receive one of these and I want you to be prepared for that time." said Tsunade. Somehow she had doubts that Sakura would get one of these missions, her father would be the first to object she mused. Tsunade resisted the temptation to laugh when the face of Sakura's father had appeared in her mind, appalled at the idea of what his Sakura-chan had to do. But Tsunade guessed it never hurt to be prepared._

"_Yes milady! What kind of mission is it?" she inquired._

"_A seduction mission"._

She smiled as she remembered how the rest of the lesson went. Lathering shampoo on her hair slowly she relished in the memory.

"_I need you to practice walking seductively."_

_Sakura just gaped at her._

"_It is not as easy as it may sound. You will have to make exaggerated motions to attract the man's attention, also your eyes and facial expressions must give him the false sense that you are trying to lure him into your grasp for something...more." she said with distaste. Men are scum thought Tsunade. She shuddered at the thought of a man touching her precious pupil in a...sexual way. Sakura was like a daughter to her and being very protective, Tsunade would probably send out teams of ANBU later to drag the poor man to the country so she could punt him across Konoha, letting him taste her wrath. The idea brought some humour into the lesson, she knew Sakura would probably want to join in with the punting game and that pleased Tsunade. It would be fun...._

"_Excuse me if my question sounds silly Tsunade-sama, but why do we have seduction missions? Won't it be easier to just torture and beat the information out of them?" she asked, clearly the idea of a seduction mission was not high on her preferred list. When it came to information gathering, Sakura liked the idea of using her fists more than her womanly charms. Not that she had much she scoffed. And even if she did, she won't know how to use them effectively._

_Tsunade narrowed her eyes at her pupil, Sakura was an intelligent girl, surely she knew the reasons why? Maybe she just pretended she didn't know so she won't have to do one of those missions, she thought to herself. Tsunade couldn't agree with her more. Sakura didn't look like the type for a seduction mission, she was pretty yeah but her attitude and manners were more suited elsewhere, to be successful in a seduction mission she'd have to be more like her best friend Ino who had no trouble when it came to controlling boys. She sighed._

"_Sure we could always torture them for information but even though we are shinobi, we are also human. Sometimes it is better to use a different method other than inflicting pain, especially since we are only after information. Seduction missions are also more secretive, it is easier to gain information and leave unscathed without the other party ever knowing they had divulged secrets to a stranger." she replied. "And since you're a medic, it would be easy for you to slip drugs into their drink which would be much more easier and require less on your part." finished Tsunade._

_Sakura frowned. She knew her shishou had a point but that didn't mean she liked it. She jumped when Tsunade started to yell at her though._

"_WELL? What are you waiting for? GET TRAINING!" _

"_Yes Ma'am!" yelped Sakura._

It took her ages to practice walking the right way before Tsunade was satisfied. Almost every part of her body ached from tiredness, who knew walking seductively would be so hard? Not to mention her shishou kept prodding at her every so often when her arms weren't placed right on her hips while she strutted about weirdly. And Tsunade didn't prod lightly which meant she was left with quite a lot of bruises by the end of the session.

Of course, even though Sakura didn't like the idea of seduction missions that didn't mean she wasn't going to give it her all when the time came so when the moment came and she had spare time, she went off in pursue of finding Ino for her help. Ino had a lot more experience when it came to things like that and didn't hesitate to help point Sakura in the right direction. Thinking of Ino made Sakura smile but that smile faded when she realized that she wouldn't be going back to the flower shop any more to help her best friend. She had been so absorbed in thinking, she didn't notice the shampoo trickling down from her hair and some had dribbled into her eye.

"FUCK!" she yelled. She grabbed at the shower head frantically to direct the water to her eye to flush out the shampoo.

It was right at that moment, someone entered the room.

* * *

He had just finished his morning training and was hoping to take a nice relaxing shower before he was called to his duties when he noticed his bed was empty. Then he heard someone cuss and immediately his attention went to the bathroom. _Must be Sakura_, he chuckled to himself. Itachi went over to his wardrobe to grab a fresh shirt before removing his current sweaty one. Then he sat down on the couch while he waited for Sakura to finish.

He thought about what he was going to do with the Kunoichi.

No doubt his mother will have something to say about this. She only just befriended the girl a few days ago and now she's a maid working in her house. His father probably won't care much though, Sasuke would be the same hopefully and Shisui....he groaned inwardly. He did not want to imagine what Shisui would say when she saw Sakura working in his house. It would be like a never ending eternal nightmare for Itachi, he could just feel Shisui's evil grin plotting mischief and had to shake the thought out his mind.

He heard the shower turn off and looked in the direction of the bathroom. Suddenly an image of Sakura naked appeared on his mind. Mortified he glanced down at the floor and tried to forget what he was just thinking. He could not let such thoughts control his mind, dammit he was Uchiha Itachi for god's sake! Just then the door opened and he looked up and stared. Big mistake, she was naked.

Well not that he could see anything since she had covered her body behind the door before peeking her head out to glare at him, but still, he knew she had nothing on and that was beginning to turn him on....he groaned and put his head in his hands. _What the hell was happening to him?_

He had been staring at her when she peeked out, needless to say Sakura was pissed. How dare he stare at her like that? She was about to go beat him up for his pervertedness before she realized she still had nothing on. Damn. "I need some clothes." she said grumpily.

That snapped Itachi out of his thoughts. He pointed over at his wardrobe, "Help yourself." he said before turning away to stare at the window. It was hard to resist the temptation to just look at her.

Sakura frowned. "In case you haven't noticed I haven't got anything on right now."

"Hn." He groaned to himself, it wasn't as if he needed any more reminding that she was naked. The idea brought many thoughts to his head which he was trying to keep _out_.

She furrowed her brows and a vein throbbed somewhere. Now she was angry. "You don't really expect me to waltz over to your wardrobe while wearing nothing just so you can get a good show while I grab something to wear, do you?" she spit out. The spite evident in her voice.

He flinched ever so slightly. _Oh_, he had no idea that was what she was thinking just there. He was too busy being absorbed in removing certain images out his head that he hadn't really paid attention to what he should have been if he wasn't distracted. He walked over to his wardrobe and realized that it was full of his clothes. _Of course_, he thought. He would have to get her new clothes later, he made a mental note to himself. Then he grabbed a shirt and some pants before throwing them over to the door, he saw Sakura grab the clothes and slam the door shut.

_Great way to start the day Itachi_, he sighed.

* * *

They were heading down the stairs to the servant's chambers when Sasuke saw them. His anger flared instantly as he remembered the events of the dinner party. Who was she, thinking she could walk about freely like that in his house? And following his brother around like a puppy? In fact, _what was she even doing here in the first place? _He strode over, ready to confront the pink haired girl.

Itachi saw his brother approaching but said nothing, he wanted to know what his reaction was to having Sakura here and decided to stay silent.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sasuke coldly, stopping them in their tracks.

_Oh dear, not good_ thought Itachi. Seems like Sasuke's reaction to the girl was hate. Although he didn't know why, he was curious though and decided to let the two continue their conversation, hopefully he'll be able to pick up a few hints from their words.

"None of your business." she replied coolly before continuing forward without Itachi. She noticed he wasn't walking and turned around to ask him. "Are you coming or not?"

"Hn." he was about to continue leading the way but that was soon stopped when Sasuke stepped in front of her.

"You're going nowhere till I find out what you are doing here." he said, anger slowly rising.

Sakura merely gave him a disapproving glance before sidestepping and continuing forward. Angry now, Sasuke reached out and grabbed her arm. She winced, he was gripping her very hard and very painfully. It was nothing like Itachi's soft touch from before. "Answer me." he commanded. She glared at him, "You don't have the right to order me to do anything." she spat out. He narrowed his eyes, "You're in _my_ house, I have _every _right to ask you." he retorted. Sakura continued to stare at him with furious eyes and he returned the favour.

Itachi sighed. This was going nowhere, he decided to break it up quickly before it turned into a real fight. The thought of having Sakura with her insane strength and Sasuke with his ninjutsu fight in the house was not appealing and he had a feeling that there won't be much left of the house when they were finished.

"Come." he said to Sakura. Her eyes flickered over to him for a moment and she hesitated for a while before sighing. The look in his eyes had told her it was a command and if she didn't obey there would be drastic consequences.

Sasuke turned to look at his brother and froze when he saw the look he was giving him. It was cold. He shivered slightly, Sasuke loved his brother very much but sometimes the stares he gave off were very..intimidating. He growled to himself when he saw Sakura following his brother down to the servant's chambers. _What are they doing?_ He wondered but not for long since Sakura had turned around to stick her tongue out at him childishly, a vein throbbed in Sasuke and before he knew it he had stuck his tongue out at her. Then he realized he was acting like an immature little brat and stopped looking at her before turning to stomp up the stairs to his room.

_I'll find out soon enough_, thought Sasuke. Then he grinned mischievously, when he did he was going to make her _pay_.

* * *

"This is Sakura, she will be working with you starting today. Make sure to give her something to change into and let her know about the work." Itachi ordered to a maid with long dark pink hair.

"Y-Yes Itachi-same." she stammered. Her stammering made Sakura roll her eyes which didn't go unnoticed by Itachi. He sighed, why was she so troublesome? "This is Karin, Sakura you will be working with her from now on."

"Whatever." came her reply, Sakura could care less although she couldn't help but notice the maid's eyes widen enormously at her blatant rudeness.

Itachi frowned. Then he smirked. "Karin, make sure to teach Sakura some manners too. Seems like she doesn't know any and I rather she didn't upset our guests later." Karin nodded. "Y-Yes." Sakura just glared at him, her eyes giving him a dangerous stare. "I don't need to be polite to rude jerks like you." she muttered quietly but loud enough for both of them to hear.

He pretended to not have heard her. "I will see you later Sakura. In the meantime, be _good._" he grinned before turning around and within moments, she was left alone with Karin.

"Sakura-san?" asked Karin.

"Yeah?"

"Are you close to Itachi-sama?" she asked curiously.

"No. What makes you think I am close to that arrogant prick?" asked Sakura angrily.

"Jeez, I was only wondering. No need to freaking snap in my face bitch." she snapped back.

That startled Sakura, Karin didn't strike her as the timid sort but she didn't think she would be this tough to deal with. She could tell the girl was radiating anger before sighing and apologizing. "Sorry, I guess I was just..tired." she muttered. Sakura was going to be working with this maid for a while and decided that getting on her bad side wasn't going to make things any better, in fact it will probably make her life a lot worse.

"Apology accepted." she said and smiled at her. "Well looks like we'll be working together for a while!" she said cheerfully. Sakura groaned. "Fantastic." she murmured to herself. Unfortunately Karin had heard it and she narrowed her eyes in a menacing way. Sakura sighed, "Don't get me wrong, I don't hate you or anything Karin. I just...don't like the idea of working here." she said quietly.

"Why?" Karin was interested now, Sakura seemed like the quiet type so she had been surprised when she talked back to both her and Itachi. Her attitude was something she thought, but then that makes it more fun. Karin was tired of all those shy and timid maids, they never had the will to fight back with her and it made life very boring. Sakura was different though. Karin had a feeling that life at the Uchiha household was going to be a lot more interesting with her around.

"I don't want to talk about it. You just need to know that I despise Itachi with a flaming passion." she growled.

Karin decided to not press her for more. Nodding slowly she said, "Okay, let's go get you some work clothes before I show you around the house and the work you have to do everyday." She motioned for Sakura to follow and she did so obediently before a sigh escaped her lips.

_Awesome, just awesome_ thought Sakura bitterly. Why is she always the one on the end receiving all the bad luck? Of all the possible things that could happen to her, she had to sold over to Uchiha. A part of her still resented her mother for that decision but she knew the mastermind had been Itachi and directed most her hate towards him instead.

He wanted her here right? Well she was going to make him regret that decision. Slightly cheered up she ran up to talk to Karin, since she was going to be here for a while anyway, why not make some friends?

* * *

Sasuke stopped when he saw her and rubbed his eyes furiously to make sure he wasn't imagining things. When he was sure he wasn't hallucinating he couldn't stop the grin that was taking over his face. Oh ho ho! Seems like luck was on his side after all! He grinned as he continued down the stairs.

"Fuck this crap." muttered Sakura as she mopped the floor. Normally mopping wouldn't be much of a bother for Sakura but the Uchiha house was freaking huge, it would take her yonks to finish and that was just the bottom floor. She was already exhausted from earlier on in the morning when she had been helping with the laundry: washing, drying and folding, oh how her arms ached from all the scrubbing! She was about to go collapse in her room for the day when Karin told her that her duties weren't finished yet and directed her to the store cupboard to get the cleaning supplies and begin mopping the bottom floor of the manor.

Which was how Sakura found herself just now cussing and muttering angrily to herself in the front hall of the house.

And that was also how Sasuke found her. He smirked, "Hello _Maid_-san." he said with emphasis on the maid. She looked up and growled at him. "Fuck off." He tutted. "That's not how you should talk to your master. It should be "Sasuke-sama" for you." he laughed. She was pissed, "Shut up dickweed." she hissed.

That shut him up alright.

"What did you just say?" he asked angrily. She ignored him and continued to mop the floor. Man, this floor goes on forever! Sasuke, however was not happy at being ignored, and by a maid no less! He grabbed the mop away from her hand. "I asked, what did you just say?" he said fuming. Sakura was not happy he just took the mop away from her, for her talking to the young Uchiha meant wasting time and she just wanted to get the job done quickly so she could rest. She eyed him warily.

"I didn't say anything, _Sasuke-sama_. You must be hearing things, now if you would let me get back to my job..." she said with a fake smile plastered on her face as she grabbed the mop back from him.

He narrowed his eyes at her but didn't say anything, instead he looked out the window and smirked as he thought of another plan to make her life hell.

Sakura watched curiously as Sasuke went outside the house, he was behaving very oddly. It wasn't like him to not come up with a spiteful remark to irk her plus it was raining badly outside and he didn't have a coat, not that Sakura cared but she didn't think he was the type of idiot who would go out like that to catch a cold. Whatever, she didn't care about him, if he wants a cold _so be it_. She snorted and went back to mopping. Almost done! She thought as smiled to herself, dreaming lazily of her lovely bed and how nice it would be to lay in the comforting sheets right now...

"HEY!" someone yelled.

She snapped out of her day dream and saw Sasuke drenched in rain. "What an idiot." muttered Sakura as she bent down to pick up the bucket. Jeez it took her long enough to mop the damn place, she was not going to waste any more time talking to an idiot. Sasuke had kept walking till he was right in front of her and then grinned. "Maid, you're not done yet. Go wipe the footprints." he said lazily and pointed behind him.

She stared at him, and then at the footprints behind him. Her eyes widened. So that's what the bastard was doing! She opened her mouth to speak but the words were lost on her throat and she couldn't find anything to say to the young Uchiha so instead she screamed angrily and hurled the mop at him, hoping it would break his face, if not at the very least damage him in some way. He dodged it easily enough and smirked before walking around the hall, pretending to be interested in the paintings and creating even more dirty footprints on the floor along the way.

On the exact floor she worked so hard to clean just not long ago.

"FUCK YOU!" she yelled.

He tsked at her, "Not the language you should be using in this house, Sakura. If I was being mean I'd probably wash your mouth out with soap just now." he said smirking at her flustered and angry face then he laughed.

She gave him a death glare. "One day, just you wait Uchiha Sasuke! One day I will smash that pretty face of yours in!" _How dare he laugh? _"ARGH!" she wanted to pull her hair out in frustration. "Fuck,fuck,fuckity fuck!" Sakura momentarily forgot she was in a noble house and let out her anger by swearing like a loony while Sasuke just stood there killing himself with laughter. She couldn't stand it any more, something inside her snapped and she didn't care if she was going to go to hell for this. She picked up the bucket of dirty mop water, then she ran and threw the contents over the young Uchiha.

Sasuke had been so busy laughing he didn't even notice until she had started running but by then it was too late and the water was already hurling towards him.

"Oops." said Sakura, pretending to be shocked by her clumsiness over the accident.

"Oops my ass! You did that on purpose you bitch!" yelled Sasuke.

"It was accidental I swear Sasuke-sama!" said Sakura innocently. "You see the bucket was heavy and then your footprints made the floor suuuuper slidey so I accidentally slipped and well you know..the rest is history." she continued, suppressing a grin.

"I am going to kill you!" he screamed and he lunged forward towards Sakura.

"What the hell is going on here?" boomed someone. Sasuke stopped. Sakura stiffened.

"Oh dear, the floor is all messy!" exclaimed Mikoto. "Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?" Then she saw Sasuke drenched and Sakura carrying an empty bucket. Her eyebrows went up slightly.

Fugaku stared at the both of them. They shifted slightly, afraid of the Uchiha clan leader, he wasn't famous for nothing after all. His stare was extremely intimidating and it made Sakura feel a little scared.

"Care to explain Sasuke?" he asked calmly.

"The bitc-I mean the maid threw the bucket of mop water at me." he mumbled quietly.

Fugaku turned to Sakura.

"My apologies Uchiha-sama, I was in the process of cleaning the floor when Sasuke-sama came in from the rain all of a _sudden_ so I thought I'd go over and clean up _his_ dirty footprints and I...slipped." She was lying through her teeth but whatever, she didn't really want to feel the Uchiha leader's wrath any time soon.

"You're lying!"

"Quiet Sasuke. You provoked her didn't you?"

"I did not!"

"You did!" this time it was Sakura who yelled it angrily. _Oops_, she thought. Busted.

"So you provoked Sakura and she threw the bucket at you." he stated.

Both of them said nothing. Fugaku sighed and Mikoto looked at her husband worriedly.

"Although Sasuke is the one at fault here, I must also punish you Sakura. This is a noble household and I won't tolerate servants who cannot hold their temper. You will henceforth be-"

"Father, Mother, Sasuke, what are you all doing here?"

All three heads turned to face the other member of the house. Well except for Sakura since she was already facing him, she had paled considerably since Fugaku had arrived. Her braveness had already disappeared and now she was worried.

Itachi had saw everything that had happened though, her frightened look made him want to protect her. He blinked. _Where did that come from?_

"She threw the bucket of dirty mop water at me!" wailed Sasuke. Itachi looked at him. _He does look pretty wet._ He thought to himself, it was probably his fault anyway. Itachi knew his brother better than anyone else and the idea of him provoking the pink haired girl and having her hurl water at him was not surprising.

"Yes...so like I was saying earlier Sakura your punishment is-" began Fugaku.

"You can't punish her father." said Itachi calmly.

Everybody snapped their heads to Itachi's direction.

"What do you mean Itachi?" asked his father sternly.

"Yeah, brother what are you talking about? She threw water at me! Dirty mop water no less!" said Sasuke in disbelief that his brother was trying to protect someone who had just gotten him drenched in horrible smelly water.

Mikoto just looked from her husband to her son before her gaze settled on Sakura, who was very pale and frightened at this point and looked as if she was going to collapse soon, she felt sorry for the poor girl.

"I'm the only one who can punish her." he continued as he walked over to stand next to a very white Sakura.

"Because she belongs to _me_."

* * *

**Author's notes:**

I'm starting to think I have some sick obsession with cliffhangers. Or maybe I'm just evil. Or perhaps it's just accidental.

Yeah I think it's the latter.

Oh and thanks to Rajsa for pointing out my addiction with the full stop lol. Every time I was about to hit the full stop button, I stopped myself and turned it to a comma! Yay! Hopefully it looks a bit better now and less broken.

As for the rating, I think that'll fluctuate depending on my mood and whatever evil ideas I come up with when writing, haha. -laughs manically-

Next chapter will be up sometime this week, the latest will be Sunday which is my one-week deadline! I realized that if I don't come up with deadlines for myself, I'd usually end up being lazy and procrastinating and we don't want that. Ugh now this means I have to go study or work on my video projects...fun times.

Oh yes, about Sasuke, I like him so I'm not deliberately making him a prick. It will be clearer later as to why he acted this way.

**Even a simple "I adore this fic" would make me a very very happy writer.**

**And happy writers update fast :O**


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T **

* * *

**Thank you to screamingfangirl22, Princess of blah blah blah, snorkabuziaczek, Gobi5no5Houkou, minniemousemom, This Fairytale is for Real, The Reveiwer known as Name, Desperate Fool, Rosenkreuz Orden, xXxtellmewhyxXx, Phoenixrise, Yachiru443, Rajsa, XSweetXSourXSoulX and Alayna36 for reviewing the last chapter!**

**Enjoy.**

**Chapter 6**

* * *

"SORRY?!"

Now that was surprising, his father, mother and brother had been shocked into silence by his recent statement but the one he expected least to say anything was now yelling at him, her rage obviously directed at him and he couldn't help but wince slightly at the tone of her voice. Itachi turned to the female standing next to him who was once deathly pale had now become fiery red from anger.

"As I have said before, I do not like repeating myself." came Itachi's calm reply.

"And like _I've_ said before, I don't belong to you!" she bit back.

"You do."

"Last time I checked I wasn't!"

"Hn."

"Don't "Hn" me!"

Silence. Sakura wanted to pull her hair out in frustration, why was this guy so damn irritating? He always got on her nerves and it annoyed her endlessly that he could get under her skin like that. _What the hell is he thinking? _she wondered. Before she could say something spiteful to him, somebody else interrupted in their conversation.

"What is the meaning of this Itachi?" asked Fugaku, his eyes never leaving his sons. For a second Sakura swore she saw irritance flash across Itachi's eyes before it had rapidly disappeared. Maybe it was just her imagination since nothing seemed to ever irritate the great Uchiha Itachi.

"I believe I have already told you."

"I was under the impression she was bought by you for the _house_ and not for yourself." said Fugaku, his eyes were narrowing dangerously as he confronted his eldest son about the issue. Itachi however was unfazed by the deadly stare his father was giving him, his own eyes showed no emotion as he and his father continued their "conversation".

Which was as far from normal as conversations could get, Sakura could easily detect the anger, disrespect, irritance and _hate_ that was being directed between the two Uchihas. She shivered.

Mikoto frowned. Itachi should know better than to disrespect his father like that, especially in front of outsiders. While she considered Sakura as a friend, this was no doubt a family matter that should be kept to family members only, although she couldn't say much for Sasuke since it had always been their intention to keep the youngest Uchiha out of their twisted and evil arguments that often occurred when there had been an important clan meeting, although subtle, the intentions that the words held were evident. It was not the first time Itachi and her husband had fought and she had a feeling it won't be the last but she did not like the idea that Sasuke and Sakura were here to see the ugly side of the Uchiha family.

Sasuke could only stare shocked as his beloved brother and the father he had admired clashed with each other with words that were so sharp he was afraid he would be cut if he was any closer. He almost winced when Itachi's voice cut in from the silence that was threatening to take over them.

"The contract clearly states that she belongs to me."

"No it doesn't.." whispered Sakura. They all turned to look at her waiting for her to go on with her explanation. Sakura couldn't read Itachi's eyes and that scared her, it was almost as if he was waiting for her to drop the bomb, she bit her lip, "I..I read the contract that was given to my mother before I..burned it." She closed her eyes, now came the hard part of admitting what she had been telling herself was a nightmare. "It said I was...was....sold over to _Uchiha_." she finished. The surname rolled off her tongue with such fire, she almost felt it scorching her tongue, the hate and resent clear in her tone made the others flinch.

They had no idea that she hated them that much.

Itachi was disappointed to see the hate, he had expected anger but for her to hate him so early on..? That was not something he liked, he won't tolerate such a thing. But he was also hurt. Her words felt like they were piercing at him and it was painful to hear her voice say those words. Still, he was not going to let what she said get to him and before he knew it he hardened himself back to his cold demeanour.

"The copy your mother had was merely a shortened version of the full contract." he said lazily, almost as if he was expecting her to know such a thing. He saw her eyes widen and the hurt that flashed through them before they were quickly consumed by hate.

Hate. That word always seemed to be following him around everywhere, it was as if it was clinging to his mere existence to torture him. People hated him for a variety of reasons: be it that he was the one who killed their families and friends or simply because he was an Uchiha and people were jealous. Those people's hate didn't matter to him though, they were trivial and meaningless to someone who killed for a living, it was only natural. Sometimes though, he thought he hated himself too. Why was he accepting all of this hate? Why wasn't he strong enough to push them back? This made him hate himself even more. All these questions circled his mind but what hurt him the most was that _she_ hated him.

And the worrying thing was he _cared_.

Since when did Uchiha Itachi care?

But he did and when he hurt her, he felt as if he was the one who was hurt more.

Sakura clenched her fists and struggled to keep her arms to her sides, resisting the thought to just go wild and punch the damn bastard. How could he do this to her? _Didn't he care for her at all?_ A gasp which seemed more like a sob almost escaped from her before she composed herself again. Of course he didn't care, she was nothing to him, just another _toy_. Another plaything under his control. She gritted her teeth, she had to wait for them to say something first, if she interrupted now then she will be punished and Sakura didn't want to find out how the Uchiha house punished disobedient servants, she had a feeling it won't be very nice.

_Or civil_. Came her inner voice. Her inner voice was always the truthful one, the one side Sakura never wanted to show people because she was afraid. It was the voice who's thoughts always hit home.

Which was why she never wanted to hear it again.

Mikoto knew she had to do something quickly, her gut feeling told her Sakura was slowly being reduced to a small pile of blubbering mess at this current moment, Sasuke was too shocked to do or say anything and it seemed like Itachi and Fugaku were nowhere near finished with their "conversation." So being the only one capable of handing out orders that seemed acceptable she took up the offer of being the peacemaker this time.

"Guys..." she said. They all turned to look at her and Mikoto almost jumped back. One of them was _her_ husband and two were _her_ sons...they were her _family_...yet she was still afraid of them when those dark and cold onyx eyes of theirs penetrated into her softer ones.

"Fugaku, we still have a lot to discuss, Sasuke is wet and will catch a cold if he stays in those clothes any longer and Itachi must be tired from his mission." she stated calmly. It was hard for her to stay calm, she felt scared but no doubt Sakura was worse off and she wanted to help her _friend_. Yes, her friend she thought. She wasn't just _some_ servant...she was Mikoto's friend for crying out loud! And that made her want to protect her too...almost as if Sakura was her own daughter.

When she heard three grunts she knew that the conversation was over for just now, she sighed softly.

"Well if you excuse me now Uchiha-sama..." Sakura said, slowly trailing off. She bowed to each of them, including Sasuke but when it got to Itachi she looked at him nervously before stiffly bowing and then she turned on her heel and practically ran back to the servants chambers.

Somehow he had a feeling that did not bode well for their relationship.

* * *

Morning came quickly for Sakura, she didn't get much sleep from the night before since she had been up busy thinking about a lot of things especially last night's incident. Now she had horrible bags under her eyes and she was in a bad mood.

And when Sakura's in a bad mood, bad things tend to happen.

_Why me?_ she thought to herself, then she sighed and headed towards the bathroom to make herself presentable for the day.

The first official day of being Uchiha Itachi's personal servant.

That didn't fit very well with Sakura and she punched the wall in frustration, letting the anger and tears flow free. She wasn't even sure what the tears were for to be honest, was it because her hand had hurt from punching the wall? Or was it because she was forced to leave home and become a maid? Or was it because of _him?_

She didn't know how long she had just stood in the bathroom crying before Karin yelled at her to get out since she needed the bathroom too, to which Sakura complied to quietly. The dark pink haired girl raised her brow when a slightly red-eyed Sakura left the bathroom with no protesting. It was unusual for the pink haired girl to not argue and bargain with her for more time in the bathroom. She thought that Sakura probably needed some space and decided not to prod the girl for information concerning her appearance right now.

* * *

Sakura wasn't the only one who didn't get any sleep.

Itachi stared at the ceiling of his bedroom from his bed for a long time. He had no idea how long that had been but he guessed it must have been quite a while since it was complete darkness when he had started and now the first rays of sunlight were leaking through his window.

He couldn't sleep. Nor could he get Sakura out his mind, _damn what has that girl been doing to him?_ He stayed up all night long thinking about her, her hurt expression kept re-playing itself over in his head and he found it troubling that she was affecting him in this way. He frowned to himself.

She was never meant to be anything more than a chess piece in his game. An important piece that was required if he was to win against his father but now everything felt different. _He_ felt different. He was confused. He didn't do what to do any more.

And all because of a certain pink haired girl.

It was unlikely he was in love with her. That was too far out for the moment but she was something more than just a chess piece in his game. There was _something_ there, something he couldn't quite phantom what it was but it was definitely something.

That irked him. Uchiha Itachi was not the type who did not know what he was doing. Or feeling for that matter. Everything he did was supposed to be planned and go along according to his decision without failure.

But she had changed all of that.

She made everything so different he wasn't entirely sure what he was even doing just now. She had him wrapped around her finger and she didn't even know it! He groaned to himself and got out of bed.

Today was going to be another very long day.

* * *

Sakura trudged along miserably behind Karin.

The older girl had actually felt a bit worried about Sakura, something that surprised herself but there was something about this girl that intrigued her and now when she was supposed to be having fun with a new friend, she was stuck with a sad and unhappy Sakura instead. Karin sighed, she had a feeling it was probably something to do with Itachi that caused this sudden depression in Sakura. It was so strange though, Sakura had only just announced her hatred for the Uchiha yesterday but now she was so depressed and out of character, Karin pondered about the possibilities of what might have happened.

_Just what on earth did Itachi do to her?_

* * *

Sasuke wasn't sure how to react when he saw her coming up from the servant's chambers.

In normal times, he would have played around with her, finding ways to make her tick and generally just being a pest to get on her nerves. He didn't like her and he knew she didn't like him either, that fact had been strengthened by the incident yesterday.

But seeing her all sad and down, he couldn't find it in himself to bring any more sorrow to the girl. It just wasn't right and despite the fact he was well known for his nature of being a prick, he couldn't summon up the courage to add more depression to Sakura. He knew his brother's words had hurt her and he wondered why it left such a big impact on the girl. He almost blurted out his question before Karin interrupted him.

"Sasuke-sama." she said politely and bowed. Sakura did the same but her voice was barely audible, and it didn't feel right to him to hear her say his name so politely, her voice was usually laced with sarcasm, something that was like a second nature to Sakura when it came to Sasuke but today it was so...monotonous and lifeless, like she no longer had any fire in her. That felt very strange for Sasuke.

He nodded and the two girls proceeded quietly past him and towards the kitchens. He turned around to see the back of Sakura's head, almost wishing she would turn around and blow a raspberry at him and he would do the same and the two would act like children all over again just like the first time he had saw her.

But the raspberry never came.

* * *

Sakura ate her breakfast in silence while Karin glanced nervously in her direction every so often before she began chatting to the other maids that were also at the table. They had already been introduced yesterday and the maids had taken a liking to Sakura, she was kind and had a unique personality, something they all admired, especially the fire inside her.

The blazing fire that had diminished to nothing more than flicker today.

Just then one of the older maids came into the kitchen and barked out orders for the day, Karin had received cleaning duty for the ornaments dotted around the manor and the scrubbing of the bathrooms of all the rooms to which she shrugged and muttered "whatever" while Sakura received nothing. She stayed silent when the other's turned to look at her, they had all heard about her new "position" and had been glad for her that she was now promoted from doing trivial chores to serving one of the masters of the house but one look at the sad girl had changed their thoughts immediately. Karin patted Sakura's shoulders lightly before leaving with the rest of the maids to get started on the massive pile of work for the day. When the others had left, the older maid turned to Sakura, her hard face now replaced with one that could only be defined by sympathy.

"Hey....you alright dear?" she asked Sakura worriedly. The girl had not spoken all morning and the far-off look in her eyes told her that something bad had happened.

"Yeah...I'm fine Mirako-san." she replied. There was no hint of emotion at all in that pretty voice of hers and it made Mirako nervous. She liked Sakura, heck everyone did, she was like the blossom in a field of weeds that brought life to every one and to see their bright flower wilt had hurt them all.

"It's not as bad as you think." she reassured Sakura kindly.

When she was greeted by Sakura's silence she knew that whatever it was the young master had did to her, had hurt her more than what they all expected. She did something that the other maids would have been shocked to see. She went forward and pulled Sakura into an embrace.

"I'm here if you ever want to talk." she said quietly.

Mirako was so warm it reminded Sakura of her mother, the thought about her mother brought tears to her eyes but she blinked them back. She allowed herself to lean against the older woman and just for once, Sakura relied on someone other than herself, she needed comfort and she was glad someone could give it to her.

A single tear fell from her eye.

* * *

"Hey Sakura-Chan!" greeted Mikoto happily, Sakura nodded politely. "Hello Mikoto-san."

"Now, I believe I remember telling you about the -sans! Just call me Mikoto!" said the older woman grumpily as she placed her hands on her waist and pretended to be annoyed.

"Okay Mikoto, only if you call me Sakura too." she replied and Sakura tried smiling a little. Mikoto was the closest she could think of to Ino, the woman reminded her so much of her best friend and she knew it would hurt the woman if she continued to stay depressed just like it would have to Ino. But then this was Ino she was talking about, the word "depression" and "hurt" did not exist in the blonde's dictionary and she would try her best to kick the word out of Sakura's dictionary too.

It seems like the words didn't exist in Mikoto's dictionary either if the way she was grinning was of any indication at all. Sakura had been told by Mirako that Itachi was currently out on a mission so she had no jobs prepared for her, which was fine by Sakura since she didn't really want to see him anyway. She was startled however when Mirako told her that Mikoto had requested for her and she was to report to Lady Uchiha as soon as possible.

Sakura started to wonder what on earth made the woman so happy when her thoughts were halted by a loud cheer.

"WE'RE GOING SHOPPING TOGETHER!"

* * *

And Sakura was back where it all started.

At the blooming market which she hated with a passion. Curse herself and her bad luck!

When Mikoto had announced that she and Sakura were going shopping, she was expecting to be visiting fancy high classed shops where rich dresses and other dainty objects were sold and not somewhere like the marketplace. Mikoto had frowned when Sakura looked surprised at her choice of location for the shopping trip.

"I know what you're thinking Sakura. You're wondering what on earth I am doing here of all places aren't you? After all nobles like myself don't usually drop by in to areas like these for _shopping_." she said tiredly.

Sakura shook her head. "I was just surprised..." she said. It was true in a way, Sakura had definitely been shocked at first. Mikoto was just so much like Ino and it had both been heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time because of the resemblance. She had made feel Sakura feel like her best friend was right here beside her trying to cheer her up but failing drastically but at the same time she was reminded that no matter what Mikoto did, she wasn't Ino and Sakura felt sad that she could probably no longer see her best friend any more.

"Yeah right, you're lying. You thought I was one of those stuck-ups didn't you? Just so you know I actually do like the market! It's got a lot of stuff that I find er....." Mikoto frantically searched her brain for a suitable word before yelling "interesting!" When Sakura stared at her with a look that was equivalent to saying "_I don't believe you_" she huffed and folded her arms over her chest and stalked off to one of the stalls.

Somehow Sakura didn't find it in her heart to be depressed after all the trouble Mikoto had taken to try and cheer her up, she could tell that the woman was trying her best and she kind of managed to force a smile on her face. _She's just like Ino_...thought Sakura. The blonde's failed attempts at trying to cheer up her best friend usually resulted in her being grumpy all day, annoyed that all her hard work had gone to waste and Sakura was often the poor one who had to do the cheering up instead.

Sakura walked over to where Mikoto was and smiled at her. The woman's grumpiness immediately vanished leaving only joy as she dragged Sakura around the marketplace, stopping to look at random artifacts and chattering excitedly like a young school girl. Sakura wasn't sure if her decision was right since a headache had began to form because of the noise in the market.

"Sakura-Chan?"

The voice was so familiar yet Sakura could not remember who it was. She looked around trying to locate the source and was almost bowled over when a mass of blonde pounced on her. At first she thought it was Ino but on closer inspection it was-

"You forgotten about me already Sakura-chan? It's me! Naruto!" yelled the blonde, his face fell and he looked disappointedly at Sakura who looked as if she was struggling to remember.

He was wrong, but right in a way. Sakura was struggling yes, but that wasn't because she couldn't remember him but because she was struggling to push Naruto away since he was crushing her windpipe.

"Naruto..get..off..me!" she gave a violent push which sent Naruto flying off her and gasped for air. "You almost killed me!" yelled Sakura at the confused blonde.

"I'm so sorry Sakura-chan! I swear I didn't mean it! I was just worried you forgot all about me." he wailed frantically, afraid he had hurt her by accident as his eyes scanned her like he was examining her for any holes and whatnot whilst constantly yelling _sorry_ over and over again like a broken record.

She glared at him, silently telling him to shut up before she beat him to a pulp.

It always ended up like this, every time. Naruto had a nasty habit of surprising people who were unaware and probably happy without his presence. His main target, the victim was often Sakura although it'd end up being the other way around when Sakura pounded the blonde viciously for scaring her for no reason.

But she was happy then, happy that she had somebody that cared for her and wanted to make her happy. Naruto, Ino, Mikoto, Mirako and Karin. They were her precious people now.

Plus Naruto always had this way of making people like him, his very aura was comforting and it made Sakura feel at ease which was something that happened rarely, especially now. And she loved him, he was like a brother to her. Although he was a bit slow and stupid sometimes, the need to protect Sakura like his sister made Sakura warm up to him instantly. Something that she treasured greatly and she was glad she went to the market today otherwise she would have never seen him, just seeing him made her depression lift and she was happy for a moment. She smiled and then hugged him, _the look of surprise on his face was so cute! She thought to herself happily._

"_Thank you Naruto."_

* * *

Sakura was humming to herself happily while she mopped the floor.

It was the same floor as yesterday but instead of an unenthusiastic and grumpy maid doing the job it was now a happy and cheery Sakura. She didn't mind helping out since she had only gone shopping earlier on in the day with Mikoto who told her that was it for the day but Sakura wasn't the type who liked to sit quietly and do nothing so she offered to help one of the maids with her job. The maid was very grateful to her since she still had many chores to attend to and was worried that she wouldn't be able to get everything done on time. Sakura brushed her off and said no problems. Karin had been delighted that Sakura was back to normal and said she would arrange some "fun stuff" for her tonight and when Sakura had asked what it was, she pressed a finger to her lips and smiled evilly saying "secret"

Which Sakura was glad for. Somehow she wasn't sure she wanted to know what kind of "fun stuff" Karin had planned and made notes to herself to avoid the girl for as long as possible tonight.

Plus there was no rain today and no Sasuke to irk her by creating more footprints. Come to think of it, she was surprised when the guy had came up to her and asked if she was "_okay_" to which she had sarcastically responded back with a "_none of your business_" which Sasuke had twitched a brow at before turning red, embarrassed that he actually asked her about her welfare. Then he stomped off back to his own room but not without turning back and blowing a raspberry at her, she returned the favour gladly and she could have sworn she saw his mouth tilt upwards into something that resembled a smile before he vanished.

It made Sakura smile a bit that Sasuke had actually been worried about her. Maybe when he wasn't being a prick he could be pretty nice.

She wiped the sweat off her forehead as she finished cleaning the last parts of the grand floor, Sakura stood back and marvelled at her amazing handiwork. Her happy smile faltered and faded when she saw who was coming in through the front door.

He looked at her and she looked back at him. They stood in silence for a few minutes before Sakura bowed and walked past him, she walked briskly afraid he might see the hurt in her which she tried so hard to cover up and hide away. Any longer and she might not be able to control her emotions.

* * *

He stared at her retreating back.

No smile. No anger. No emotion. Nothing.

He felt weird.

Not disappointment. Not hate. Not confusion.

But hurt.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Short chappie I know but the original I had planned was way too long and would probably run into at least 10k words and I didn't think I would have all that written by today so I, being a lazy bum decided to shove it into the next chapter. At this rate my previous plan for the fic ending at 20 chapters would turn into 30 ha ha..

This chapter mainly discusses Sakura and Itachi's confusion at their feelings for each other. They aren't in love with each other. They aren't best friends with each other. Heck they're nowhere even near being friends with each other just now. They're still at the acquaintances level give or take a few. Itachi being an emotionless guy is confused at his feelings, he didn't even know he had feelings in the first place so yeah.

The angst at the beginning made me feel depressed when writing so I stuck in some humour near the end to brighten up the story a bit, after all it IS a happy romance story and not some depressing crap. Plus don't ya'll love Naruto? He's one of my favourite characters of all times because the way he acts and talks just makes me warm up to him, his surprises are also the best plus he's so nice!

I know I probably made Mikoto OOC but I had my reasons. Personally I believe that every girl, no matter how emo, cold and anti-social they pretend to be, has got a happy-girlish side to them that would spring out whenever she was in the comfort of her real best friends.

Sadly I know because I happen to be one of those anti-social ones, I'm really shy so most the time around other people who I'm not comfortable I come off as a bit cold and scary but when I'm with my friends I can relax and go wild. You should hear my crazy laugh, my friends find it highly amusing although it's not something I would show to a stranger.

So poor Mikoto, surrounded by three stoic males had no choice but to act cold and stoic too but Sakura changed all that when she appeared in the picture since girls interact easier with other girls and Mikoto was not afraid to show her nice side to Sakura.

Ugh, I have my Advanced Biology prelim exam this Wednesday and Advanced Maths for next Tuesday so I'll be banning myself from the internet for a few days to study. Here begins the torture so wish me luck!

**Even a simple "I adore this fic" would make me a very very happy writer.**

**And happy writers update fast :O**


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: A Sorta Fairytale**

**Pairing: ItaSaku**

**Status: Incomplete**

**Rating: T **

* * *

**Thanks to Yachiru443, The Reveiwer known as Name, xXxtellmewhyxXx, Princess of blah blah blah, minniemousemom, nightwish635, Rajsa, snorkabuziaczek, Katastrofei, XsweetXSourXSoulX, michy, Rosenkreuz Orden , KiwiDoughnuts, and Green Sea Blossom for reviewing!**

**Here's a nice long chapter for all you lovely people :)**

**Chapter 7**

* * *

It was starting to become a daily routine for Itachi to stare at his ceiling every night.

He just had too much to think about, sleep never came easy for a killer but he had always managed it somehow since sleep was essential to good health and he had to be in pristine condition so missions could be accomplished smoothly. Itachi never failed in his missions.

But that was before she came into the picture and he cursed himself for being distracted.

It was a very simple mission, something that should not take him more than few hours to complete but today he made an error and the mission had taken almost a day to complete and Itachi never made mistakes.

Until now of course.

She was affecting him more than he liked it and as much as he tried to shove the image of her out of his head, he couldn't. He was drawn to her, like a cat to a mouse. There was something about her that attracted his attention and he couldn't get his mind off her.

But she hated him. That brought a weird feeling to his chest that he couldn't describe other than it hurt.

And unlike a wound in the skin that would heal in a few days, this pain didn't heal but continued to plague him every so often. She was like a poison, a dangerous being that was getting underneath his skin, slowly killing him inside out.

He sighed and wished sleep would come and take over him so he could forget about her.

Even if it was only for a moment.

* * *

She didn't cry.

Instead she just laid on her bed and thought about him, she couldn't help it, it was like a natural reaction after she saw him that night. The previous burden on her heart that her friends had helped lift was starting to crush her again.

Sakura didn't even know why she cared so much about what Itachi did to her. It wasn't as if he was important to her, he wasn't a friend or someone she remotely liked but there was just something about him that she couldn't just ignore. She hated feeling like this, unsure and confused.

And afraid.

She curled into a ball and snuggled closer into her covers and willed sleep to come. It was late and she needed to rest for the next day. Sakura was glad that Karin had left her alone when she saw the depressed look back in her eyes, she didn't think she could take any more before she collapsed. That made her angry, she didn't understand what about Itachi could make her so frustrated, annoyed and sad at the same time but it irked her that he was making her feel so _vulnerable. So weak._

She wasn't a strong person but she never thought of herself as a weakling, that title vanished the moment Mamoru died and Sakura had buried all her emotions deep in her heart. He was supposed to protect her but without him she felt so lost. She didn't want to feel like that ever again but something about the Uchiha was making those emotions she thought she had long lost bubble up again inside her.

_Dammit! What was happening to her?_

Sakura didn't know.

* * *

In the end, neither of them slept much. The source of their insomnia, funnily enough had stemmed from the other in question but this was something they didn't know, and probably never will.

Sakura trudged up the stairs miserably, he was free of missions today and that meant she would most likely be spending time with him, doing whatever he did in his free time. Something she didn't want to know or become a part of, anything that was related to him she didn't want to see, but of course knowing her luck, it was highly unlikely she would get her wish. Still that didn't mean she couldn't try at least, a small smile appeared on her face as she bounded up the stairs to the kitchen. Hopefully Mirako would not suspect anything and give her the jobs necessary to avoid the Uchiha for the day, after all if he can't find her then he can't make her do anything right?

Feeling slightly better about herself Sakura hopped up the stairs two at a time, making haste, if this so-called plan of hers was going to work, she'd need to make sure she didn't run into him on her way to the kitchen.

The light faded in her eyes when she saw who was coming down.

Sasuke looked up when he heard a small gasp in front of him, then he smirked.

"Oh? Well if it isn't the _maid_." he said a little too cheerily.

"I have a name you know!" she blurted. _Okay, that was random_ she thought. At first Sakura was just going to just ignore him but his attitude always screwed up with her plans, there was just something about Sasuke and his rude comments that she couldn't stand and ignore. Then remembering her plan about avoiding Itachi she bowed quickly, almost snapping her neck with the action. _Ow, great now I have a crick this early in the morning, fantastic. _

"IhavesomethingtoattendtosoI'llexcusemyselfnow." she said so quickly that it came out like a mass of jumbled words rather than a coherent sentence then she literally ran up the stairs and towards the kitchen before Sasuke could even give her any kind of reply. He had no idea what she said just there but decided not to pursue it.

"Weird girl." he muttered to himself before continuing downstairs. He honestly couldn't see what his brother saw in this girl, she wasn't anything special in his opinion, well apart from her hair maybe and her personality was something he mused. But then his brother wasn't any different, as much as Sasuke loved Itachi, he had to admit his brother was kind of boring. He was too robotic, he resisted a laugh inwardly at the thought.

* * *

"Sakura dear, are you sure you don't want to rest just now? I'm sure Itachi-sama will have something for you to do later.." asked Mirako uncertainly. It had been an incredibly weird morning since Sakura had practically stormed into the kitchen where they were all having breakfast and demanded to be given a chore. Needless to stay they were all stunned, the household chores were not fun and the idea of someone _asking_ to be given something to do was worrying.

"Very sure." she replied cheerily. "Give me as much as you can, I'm feeling particularly energetic today." she chirped.

"But.." began Mirako.

"Oh, almost forgot. Could I get a note of Itachi's schedule so I can arrange my jobs easier?" _so she could arrange to avoid him too, _but she didn't say that out loud. Sakura was certain that the older maid knew what the Uchiha did everyday and most likely had some sort of timetable that the girl could use to her advantage.

"I'm sure-" said Mirako before Sakura cut her off.

"Please?" she pleaded, then she tried her puppy-eye technique and hoped that Mirako was one of the ones who would succumb to the technique because if she didn't, well that only left Sakura with the choice that she was going to have to find some way or other to obtain the schedule, and that meant stealing.

Something she had long given up and had no plans on returning to.

The older maid sighed. "Fine." Then she left the room and when she returned a moment later she was carrying a parchment with messy handwriting scribbled over it which she handed to Sakura.

"This is just a rough draft since I'm not really sure what he does everyday and then there's his random missions every so often and all that.."

"It's good." Sakura said as her eyes scanned the parchment then she smiled at the older woman. "Thanks. I'll get going now." and before Mirako could say anything else Sakura had already ran from the room, yelling something about dusting the whole manor much to the amazement of Karin and the other maids.

The smile had brought a little more reassurance to Mirako, hopefully what she was doing was right and Sakura really was going to use the schedule for a good purpose.

* * *

There was something off about his brother today.

As much as Sasuke hated to admit it, he knew his brother was much more faster and ruthless when it came to sparring and often he would be a mess of bruises by the end of it but today Itachi seemed distracted and his movements were slower and less lethal than they usually were. It wasn't like his brother to be thinking about something else during their morning training session, concentrating on your opponent at all times was one of the few but important lessons Itachi had drilled into Sasuke although it seemed like Itachi should probably to take a few of his own words to heart if the way he was behaving today was any indication.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, although Itachi was distracted today he didn't leave any openings and Sasuke hadn't managed to land more than a few measly kicks which Itachi had blocked perfectly while dodging the rest. This just shows how vast the difference in power was between him and his brother, a gap he always tried to close even if it was only bit by bit. Sasuke growled and charged at Itachi again.

Itachi monitored Sasuke for the time being, his moves were sluggish and will not effective at all when it came to real-life battles and here he thought he had taught his brother well but it seems like he was wrong. Itachi wrinkled his nose ever so slightly, he didn't like being wrong. He would have to do something about him soon, as if it wasn't bad enough that Sasuke let his emotions be read off his face as easily like a book and no doubt if Itachi was an enemy shinobi then Sasuke would be dead right now.

They had been sparring for about an hour now and Itachi had other things he had to take care of today. Just when he had been planning on what was the best way to get Sasuke to admit defeat for today, his little brother startled him by speaking as he dived forward ready to knock Sasuke off his feet.

"So..what's up with you and Sakura?" Sasuke asked curiously.

Itachi faltered in his move for a moment but that was enough for Sasuke. It hadn't been his intention to deliberately stun his older brother into making a mistake but the question had been invading his mind since his encounter with Sakura this morning and he thought it would be better to ask now rather than later. Itachi's momentary distraction was good enough for Sasuke as he lunged forward with his katana, hope building inside him that maybe for this one time he might actually be able to knock his brother onto the floor like he had done to him far too many times.

Itachi narrowed his eyes as soon as he found out that he had left an opening for Sasuke to attack him and before Sasuke's katana had reached him he had pulled out his own and parried the blow. Sasuke's eyes widened. Then with expert control he flicked the other blade hard enough for it to fly out of Sasuke's hands and he watched with amusement as Sasuke's face contorted into something like astonishment as he watched his own blade fly away and land with a dull thud to the side. Itachi pressed his own katana to Sasuke's throat.

"You lose again little brother." he said calmly.

Sasuke scowled at him. As if he needed reminding of his sore defeat.

Itachi sighed, he knew what his little brother wanted but he knew Sasuke wasn't ready for it yet. Praise was something he rarely ever gave and he thought he had told Sasuke enough times that it was not important and what he really should be focusing on is how to improve his current abilities. Although he supposed it didn't hurt just to tell his brother that he was good since Sasuke had desired for it so much.

He removed his katana from Sasuke's throat before turning around to head back to the manor. Sasuke's shoulders dropped a tiny fraction at his brother's lack of reaction, he went over to pull his katana out of the ground before following Itachi and that was when he noticed his brother was no longer walking but standing still. He was shocked by Itachi's next few words though.

"Not bad. But not good enough..yet." he muttered quietly before he continued forward.

The comment had left the younger Uchiha stunned for a moment before he grinned. Itachi wasn't one for words and what he said just now was as close as it could ever get to being a compliment. It made Sasuke happy to know that his brother was actually acknowledging his abilities.

"You haven't answered me yet." asked Sasuke.

"Hn." grunted Itachi.

Since they were brothers, it wasn't hard for Sasuke to decipher what Itachi's grunt had meant. It was almost like their own language he snorted.

"I was referring to my earlier question about Sakura."

"Hn." Sasuke assumed this meant, _so what?_

"What are you planning to do with her?" Sasuke's eyes flickered over to Itachi's as he tried to search for any hints and emotions that might be playing around on his brother face. He was disappointed but not surprised at his brother's lack of display, Itachi had always been an expert in covering up his feelings.

He knew something was up when there was silence instead of a grunt. It often meant Itachi was too busy thinking with that brain of his to give him any kind of response. Sasuke often wondered what Itachi thought about all the time, he had no doubts that his older brother was an extremely intelligent being but he had no idea what thoughts might be running across his mind just now. His poker face was as unreadable as it could ever be.

"It is none of your concern." he finally replied and he vanished. Sasuke sighed, _typical brother._

* * *

Sakura was bored.

According to the "schedule" Itachi should be in the manor somewhere just now and that itself was enough for alarm bells to be ringing in Sakura's mind.

Which was how she found herself in the west wing of the manor – the furthest away from his room - dusting random ornaments that lay dotted in almost all the corridors she'd come across. A job that was fairly easy had become one that was so irritating it took all she had to not smash them against the walls.

It was annoying at the very least, his actions and movements were unpredictable and it was only thanks to her fellow maids she had managed to avoid the Uchiha all morning. Not that her fellow maids had known they had played a part in this little game, they merely thought it was their duty to let the young master of the house know where his "personal maid" had wandered off to which was of course nowhere near her real location since she had long disappeared from the area as soon as she was spotted by one of the servants making it difficult for him to actually track her.

Sakura sighed and leaned against the wall, it was tiring to be avoiding someone. Her heart always skipped a beat whenever she felt someone coming near her and was constantly worried it was the Uchiha that had found her. If it wasn't, it was often just one of the servants but that still didn't mean she could sit back and relax, she knew none of the servants would hesitate to tell the Uchiha where she was if he asked so she was constantly on the move.

If it wasn't for the map of the manor she had stole out of the library, Sakura was sure she would have been lost already. The place had looked big enough on the outside but the inside was much much worse. Not only was there a million rooms and corridors there were also hidden passageways and shortcuts that only a seasoned servant or members of the family would know about. It made her wonder if all this running about, hiding like a mouse was worth her energy at all.

Well it was either that or be stuck with the Uchiha for company.

She preferred the first option.

"Sakura?"

Her hand gripped the duster harder before her head snapped towards the source of the voice and relief washed over her when she realized it was only Karin. "Hey." she replied.

"What are you doing here?" asked Karin curiously.

"Dusting." she said quickly. Karin was a sharp girl and Sakura was sure if she started stuttering the other girl would be able to tell she was lying. "What else?" she continued before laughing and waving the duster in front of the other girl.

Karin raised a brow at her statement and sighed softly, Sakura dreaded her next words.

"I'm only telling you this because I'm your friend." she began and Sakura's mouth opened in surprise before she shut them, it was rude to interrupt whatever important thing Karin was going to say.

"He's looking for you." _Big surprise Karin_, as if Sakura didn't know that already, she resisted the temptation to roll her eyes at the other girl. But Karin wasn't finished.

"And he's coming this way now since one of the guys had seen you earlier so I suggest you start heading to somewhere further away now." she finished then her voice dropped a couple of notches before she said "The last time I checked the library was in dire need of some dusting...."

Sakura smiled at Karin who was now looking away muttering to herself about "silly girl" and "troublesome".

"Thanks Karin." said girl glanced up at the sincere smile Sakura was giving her before blushing awkwardly. She cleared her throat a little too loudly and turned around to leave the pink haired girl to fend for herself.

"I should also point out Sakura, that generally when people are "dusting" they require an object of some sort to clean to make it believable." she pointed out Sakura's blatant mistake that had led her to believe she was lying before she walked away.

Sakura's mouth gaped open. How on earth did she manage to make such a silly mistake? She prayed silently to whatever God was watching her to thank them that she was glad they had sent Karin to find her first. She brought out the map and wondered which path Itachi would most likely to take to come to the west wing, after studying it for a few minutes she decided it would be best for her to travel via the top floor across the western area and down the east tower before looping back into the library on the second floor in the east wing. She stowed the map back into the pocket of her maid dress, which was the only good thing that came out of wearing it. The dress had tonnes of hidden pockets that Karin had told her about, a maid's secret she said. It was highly useful since it didn't hurt them to carry small essentials around, it made the jobs a lot easier if you didn't have to constantly trundle back and forth for tools.

Sakura didn't think the dress was hideous but it was a little too frilly for her tastes.

It was just like any other ordinary maid outfit you might see, a simple affair consisting of a white dress with a black apron over it and a pair of black shoes to complete the set. It was as simple as it could get in terms of fashion but the material was very soft and silk like and it didn't take Sakura long to be fond of the dress. Plus she thought she looked pretty good in it when she saw her reflection in the mirror, the black and white brought out the pink colour of her hair very well. It had been a long time since Sakura had worn any decent clothes that didn't have holes in them or were in ragged condition, all the spare money she earned had gone towards buying medication for her mother.

At the thought of her mother Sakura tried to stop the tears from forming in her eyes, she failed drastically and wiped them away angrily before heading towards the stairs that lead to the top floor. She couldn't think about her mother right now, especially not since the "hide and seek" game only just began.

* * *

To say Itachi was frustrated was an understatement, he was pissed. Sakura was toying around with him and he would be damned before he let her win against him in this game. He strode down the corridor swiftly and to other people he looked as normal as he could ever be but inside he was raging.

He had spent all morning trying to locate the stupid girl believing it was only sheer coincidence that she had disappeared as soon as he arrived in the designated location the servants spoke of.

He was certain the servants were not lying, his skills had told him that much.

That meant she had somehow found out he was coming and had flitted off to wherever she was now to avoid encountering him. Somehow he had taken on the role of being the cat trying to hunt down the mouse but with no success and Itachi refused to lose, especially not to a little pink haired girl! He was tired of hunting around the house for so long, she had wasted a good amount of his time and he was not happy. Heck Itachi found himself travelling around the whole manor, from east to west and from the top all the way to the bottom, something he would have never done before.

Itachi practically yelled at the next maid he saw, he didn't notice his voice had been louder than normal and only the fear from the maid's eyes had alerted him that he was frightening her. He sighed and controlled himself.

"Have you seen Sakura?" he asked again, this time much quieter and less harsh.

"U-um...I saw her coming down the stairs in the east tower....just there." but the maid was talking to air. Itachi had already disappeared.

* * *

The library was like paradise to her. Sakura had always been fond of books ever since she was little, where other children would beg their parents to let them play outside she would choose to sit quietly and read instead and her favourites were none other than your typical fairytales.

She pulled a old leather bound book from the shelf and blew the dust off it's cover so the title would be visible. _Cinderella, _she smiled. This was the first book her father had given her when she was little, Sakura missed her father dearly. Although he was a bit overprotective, she could tell it was all because he cared for her. Tears started to form when she thought of her father....all alone by himself, she rubbed at her eyes roughly brushing the tears away before seating herself on one of the comfortable chairs the library had to offer. Sakura held the book tightly to her chest and and closed her eyes, allowing herself to drown in the memories of the past.

* * *

"_Daddy!" screamed a little girl with bright pink hair as she ran up to a tall man about thirty years of age who picked her up with grace before allowing the little girl to burrow her head into his shoulder. He glanced up from his daughter to admire his wife in the background who was smiling at him happily as she saw how glad the little girl was to see her father._

"_Hey darling, what you been doing today? Did you miss daddy?" he chuckled as the little girl lifted her head to wrinkle her nose at him._

"_I fell from a tree and cut my knee." she whimpered. "It was sore!" she protested before her father let her down to inspect her knees. He raised a brow at his wife who shrugged her shoulders._

"_Sakura-chan, how many times have I told you that girls don't climb trees? Tree climbing is for boys, you should be playing dress up and learning dancing instead." he sighed at his daughter who was now hiccuping from all the crying earlier._

"_But Mamoru-kun can already climb trees with just his feet! I can't lose to him!" she wailed desperately then she started crying again. Her father pulled his daughter into a hug._

"_Don't cry dear, did Mommy kiss it better?" he chuckled as he remembered how Sakura refused to believe her wounds were healing unless one of her parents had kissed it. It had been something his wife came up with when Sakura had been ill as a little girl. Whenever she had refused to take any type of medication, they would tell her that if she took the medicine then mommy and daddy will kiss her and grant her one wish, Sakura upon hearing the word "wish" had eagerly agreed to taking the medicine._

"_Yeah but I want daddy to kiss it too!" she cried. He smiled then kissed her knee. "There we go, feeling better now princess?" he grinned._

"_Much much better. Now you owe me one wish" replied Sakura. Then she stretched her arms up indicating she wanted to picked up. He laughed as he bent down to gather his daughter in his arms, she snuggled up closer to him._

"_What did you wish from mommy then?" he asked curiously._

"_That I don't need to eat vegetables at dinnertime." said Sakura smugly. She was obviously proud of her achievement of conning her mother into allowing her to skip out on eating any of the vegetables. He chuckled at his daughter who was grinning at him like a maniac._

"_Well done darling!" then he smirked at his wife who was scowling at him for taking Sakura's side. "It's getting late now, how about daddy tucking you in to sleep?" he asked._

"_NO!" yelled Sakura._

"_Little girls need a lot of rest to be able to climb trees..." he pointed out to her._

_Sakura looked at him suspiciously. "You said girls don't climb trees."_

"_Well you know what to wish for then don't you?" he grinned._

"_But I want daddy to read to me!" she cried, tears forming in her pretty green eyes again._

"_Daddy is tired Sakura dear, how about another time?" asked her mother gently._

"_NO!"_

"_It's okay Mizuki, I'm not that tired tonight and it's been a while since I last played with Sakura, I miss her company too." he reassured his wife. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, admitting defeat. "Fine, you win again." she said. He chuckled then gave her and Sakura a three-way hug. "I love you two." he murmured. "I know, I love you too." said her mother. "I LOVE YOU TOO DADDY!" screamed Sakura into their ears. "AND MOMMY!" They winced at her loud voice before breaking out in laughter._

_Sakura looked at her parents weirdly before giggling to herself. _

_They looked just like any other ordinary family out there. A nice happy family._

* * *

"_Once upon a.." he began._

"_NO! Not like that daddy! You need to say it with more feeling!" yelled the little girl._

_He sighed warily before clearing his throat to start again._

"_Once upon a.."_

"_NO! You're doing it wrong!" she yelled again._

_He wanted to whack himself with the book, being unconscious was certainly better than being lectured by his little girl about not reading properly to her. He had lost count of how many times he was made to repeat the first three words in the fairytale with "feeling" as Sakura had put it. He was literally sick of hearing himself speak those three words. If he heard anyone else speak to him with those three words he was going to sucker punch them three times through three walls._

"_Darling, we can't get through the story if you keep stopping me at the first three words.." he said before Sakura interrupted him._

"_I don't care. Stories with no feelings are useless! Do it right daddy!" she said grumpily before sulking. He sighed, exasperated with his daughter already._

"_Once upon a.."_

"_WRONG!"_

_He groaned. It was going to be a long night._

* * *

"_No! Don't take my daddy away!" she screamed as hands pulled her back from running towards her father. He gave her a sad smile._

"_Sorry Sakura dear, seems like daddy won't be able to kiss this one better this time." he chuckled sadly before he was taken away by the soldiers. Sakura struggled against her captor's grip, biting on the arm around her she managed to free herself a little. She ran and ran but her father got further and further away from her. Then she fell, she looked up to see her father disappearing into the distance before stretching her hand out to grab him back._

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

* * *

She screamed as strong hands jerked her awake from the nightmare. She could hear someone yelling her name sounding concerned, her eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet and she could only make out a vague outline of someone standing in front of her grabbing her shoulders and shaking her violently.

"Sakura!" said a familiar voice. Oh, it was Itachi. She could recognize that voice of his from a mile away, however she didn't expect it to be filled with so much feeling. His voice was usually so robotic. She blinked a few more times to rid of eyes of the sleepiness.

"What are you doing here?" she blurted.

"Looking for you. Where were you all day?" he asked coldly.

She winced inwardly and looked at her hands instead, she didn't like his voice when it was like that, it was so cold and painful to hear.

He resisted the temptation to roll his eyes at her reaction but inside he was really worried for the girl, he had been hunting for her since the start of the day and it was now late evening but still no trace of her. Itachi then did something he never ever did before, he started to panic, thinking that she might have gotten into an accident. It was only by sheer luck that he had just gone pass the corridor to the library when he heard her screams. Her scream had almost drained all the blood in him, it was so painful and full of hurt. By the time he had rushed into the room Sakura had been thrashing about and whimpering in her sleep, obviously the victim of a nightmare. He shuddered to think what kind of nightmare it was that caused her to produce such a sad cry.

"I..uh...I was...erm...dusting the manor..." she trailed off quietly, suddenly aware that it was dark outside. She looked up at him and the first thing she noticed was his eyes, for the first time Sakura saw that they weren't entirely onyx but had tiny specks of brown in them. They were hardly visible, it was only thanks to the moonlight reflecting off them that made her notice.

Sakura didn't know she had been staring at his eyes until Itachi raised his brow at her then she blushed. Wait, why was she blushing? The question caused more red to tint her cheeks and she prayed silently, thankful that the darkness was here to cover her so he couldn't see.

She was wrong. Itachi could see perfectly well and he resisted the temptation to smirk at her when he saw the blush slowly taint her face. He stood up and helped her up when he noticed she was struggling, _no wonder_ he thought, she must have been sitting stiff like that since this afternoon.

"I expect to see you tomorrow Sakura. Don't make me hunt for you again like today." he warned her.

So he knew she was avoiding him, well it didn't really take a genius to figure that out she mused. Still the thought of him being unable to find her till now left her feeling satisfied. She nodded and he looked at for a moment. "Make sure you get some rest." he said as he vanished into the air.

She stood in wonder for a moment, he sounded so concerned about her health she couldn't help but wonder if there was something more to him than just the cold mask he put on display. With a sigh she pushed the thought out of her mind for the moment, she was physically and mentally exhausted and wanted nothing more than to drop dead onto her comfy bed.

The idea gave her enough fuel to begin the long and slow trek back to her sleeping chambers.

* * *

Sakura groaned as the sunlight shone onto her eyes, _who the hell opened the damn curtains? _It felt like she had only just fallen asleep before being cruelly woken up by some moron who obviously hated her a lot to be disturbing her like this.

"Hn."

Sakura shot up in bed.

"What the hell!?" she exclaimed, pointing at the Uchiha who was leaning against the wall next to the window.

"It's time to get up, we have a lot to do today." he said calmly.

"Don't you mean "YOU have a lot to do today?"."

"No. I would require your presence today Sakura." he said. Then he smirked, "Have you forgotten you're my personal maid already?" She went silent afterwards then she sighed.

"Is this really necessary?" she asked, referring to the fact he was standing there and watching her every move. She wanted to run but she couldn't exactly do it with him standing right there, maybe if he could just wait for her upstairs.....

"You might run away again."

_Her plan flew right out the window._

"I'm not going to." she pleaded.

"I don't trust you."

_Damn._

"I promise I won't." she said nicely batting her eyelashes cutely.

"Promises mean nothing."

_Fuck you._

"Well I need some privacy at least!" she said exasperatedly.

"I shall wait for you outside your room. Don't try anything funny." he warned before exiting the room. Sakura got up and ran over to dead bolt the door first. She could have sworn she heard him chuckle through the wood and refrained herself from punching him through the door. She cursed under her breath and gathered up some clothes before heading into the bathroom.

* * *

"Do not look so miserable. People will think I have been torturing you." he said to Sakura as they made their way up to the stairs. They haven't had breakfast yet but Itachi assured her that he had already prepared something for them to eat in the carriage since they will be busy today.

"Haven't you?" she retorted. It certainly felt like it to her, being in his presence was torture itself already.

"No I haven't." he replied.

"It certainly doesn't feel like you haven't." she muttered to herself.

There was silence for a while as they walked through the gardens, it was a nice day she noted. Such a shame she had to spend such a good day with Itachi, the guy could probably suck all the happiness and fun away from anyone unfortunate to come across him.

She was too busy looking at the sky and thinking intently that she accidentally stood on her cloak and stumbled forward. It was only thanks to Itachi and his lightning flexes that stopped her from falling flat on her face. His arms were around her waist and his hand had gripped hers just in time, she would have laughed at the cliché and comical sight if she wasn't so embarrassed. She blushed even more when he leaned in towards her face.

"Are you okay Sakura?" he murmured quietly. She could feel his warm breath on her face and she hated to admit, it didn't feel as unpleasant as she imagined it to be. In fact it was kind of enjoyable. _Oh my God, I did not just think that! _She recoiled in horror and pushed Itachi away from her before standing properly on her own two feet, eyes glued to the floor in awkwardness.

**Hell yes you did!** Screamed Inner Sakura in joy.

_Shut up idiot! Yelled Sakura in response. _She didn't want her inner side to erupt now and blow her not-so-calm cover, as if it wasn't already on the verge of breaking thanks to the little incident that just occurred.

Itachi smirked at the look of horror that had appeared on Sakura's face earlier, it was amusing to say at the very least of how easily she could be read. It didn't take a genius to figure out what her train of thought must have been. He looked her her questionably when she looked as if she was having an internal argument with her mind, something that amused him even more since he didn't know he had such a big impact on her.

"Are you okay Sakura?" he repeated.

Her eyes snapped up to look at him in confusion. Then the answer dawned on her, "Um..yeah." she muttered quietly, her face had started to glow red even more. _No,no no!_ She didn't want to look like a silly girl blushing in front of him! "Just a little warm from the sun." _Phew_. Good one Sakura!

He raised a brow, somehow he wasn't convinced by her explanation and she gulped.

"Uh...should we get going now?" she asked nervously, hoping to change the subject.

"Hn." Then he turned around and motioned for her to follow. She breathed out a sigh of relief before heading towards the carriage.

* * *

She was back at the market. Again.

Sakura wanted to palm her forehead, fate seemed to hate her if this was of any indication at all. She could almost feel the bastard smirking behind her at her string of curses when they reached their destination.

She growled at him when she saw the smug smile on his face, he was doing this deliberately to annoy her and it made Sakura mad.

"Something the matter?" he inquired.

She had to fight off the burning desire to smash his face in at that statement. What did he think? Obviously it mattered! She was pissed and he knew it but the way he was acting as if nothing was wrong was starting to irritate her like hell. Sakura had been so busy cursing Itachi she never even noticed a silver haired man had sneaked up behind her.

"Yo~!"

"WAH!" she jumped a mile and turned around to glare at whoever it was that just scared the crap out of her. The silver haired man just cocked his head to the side, _he was extremely weird and strange_ thought Sakura. He was carrying a small orange coloured book with half of his face being covered by a mask leaving only his eyes visible, strangely one of them had also been covered by a headband with the leaf symbol which indicated he was a shinobi like Itachi.

A very mysterious one too.

"Hatake, what brings you here?" came the Uchiha's cold drawl.

"Eh..." said the silver haired nin nervously before looking around seemingly to be searching for something, or someone. "Just strolling about the area."

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at the nin who gulped nervously. Kakashi was under his squad in ANBU and despite the man's perverse and annoying nature, he was a good shinobi and very powerful. Although Itachi didn't show it, he acknowledged the other man and that was saying something since Itachi hardly ever acknowledges other people.

Sakura watched the weird interaction between Kakashi and Itachi and made a mental note to research the other nin. He shocked her by finally registering her presence.

"Hey girlie, who are you?" he asked curiously.

A vein throbbed somewhere in Sakura at being called a "girlie". "The name's Sakura and I'm _very_ pleased to meet you _old_ man." she said with a smirk when the comment left the other man stunned.

Then he startled her by laughing, "Ha ha, she's a quirky one all right!" he said to Itachi who remained stoic. "Nice to meet ya too Sakura, the name's Kakashi." he said as he closed over his book and held his hand out for a handshake.

She looked at him in wonder then slowly took his hand, he was surprisingly gentle and she could tell instantly that this guy was a nice person. His hair was pretty interesting though, the white was a big contrast to his young face so she couldn't help but ask, "How old are you?" she blurted.

"Eh..well...I think maybe...26?" he replied deep in thought.

"29." said Itachi. He remembered reading it off his ANBU profile once.

Sakura stared at him incredulously. How did _he_ know?

"Ouch...yeah..29. Thank you Itachi for reminding me that I'm getting old." chuckled Kakashi.

"But your hair..." Sakura wasn't finished with her question when he answered.

"It's natural. My father's was the same." he replied already knowing where the conversation was going. Everybody he encountered had asked him about his unnatural shade of hair colour and he was already to used to such questions. He was sure the girl had her fair share of questions too, with shocking bubblegum coloured hair like that so he didn't take offence at her words.

"Oh..." was all she could come up with. Then she blushed, embarrassed she had just asked him such a personal question and was worried he would be offended. "Sorry." she muttered.

"Eh? It's okay! No harm done!" he said cheerily waving his orange book around. Then he winced as a loud cry came from somewhere behind him.

"KAKASHI!!" somebody yelled.

"Uh..gotta go now guys! Seeya!" yelled Kakashi nervously before he disappeared with a "poof". Sakura stared at the spot he had occupied before he vanished and then looked at Itachi, silently demanding some sort of explanation about the man's random actions. He remained stoic, making no motion to talk to her so she contented herself by glaring at him.

Sakura almost had a heart attack when she saw who – sorry maybe "what" might be a better word to use here – was charging towards them.

"Uchiha-san!" he boomed. "Have you seen Kakashi?" Sakura flinched at his loud voice. His appearance was certainly....interesting she thought, although _weird_ would probably describe him better and more accurately. He was dressed all in an obnoxious green colour with a bowl hair cut and the biggest eyebrows Sakura had ever seen in her entire life, she shuddered.

"I'm sorry to say I have not Maito-san." replied Itachi. Sakura turned to give him a incredulous look. Did he just...._lie_? He returned her favour by giving her an amused look that almost translated into something along the lines of, _"Yes I did so what are you going to do about it?" _She scowled at him.

"Such a shame! He had just lost in our 102th challenge and was supposed to treat us to lunch today but oh well I shall catch him around some other time....anyway I must head off to continue my training now! Goodbye Uchiha-san! Let's go Lee!" he yelled loud enough for the whole street to hear, Sakura winced.

"One moment Gai-sensei!"

That startled Sakura, she didn't even realize there had been somebody else with Gai and looked around curiously trying to find out who it was. She realized with a new sense of horror when she saw the voice belonged to a young boy around her age who looked like a mini clone of Gai, with the exact same nasty shade of clothing as well as the same bowl haircut and the second largest eyebrows she had ever seen in her entire life. She shuddered. He was grinning at her and she resisted the urge to turn around and run as far away possible from him.

"Are you Haruno Sakura?" he asked.

"Um...yes? How do you know me?" Sakura was confused, she had never met someone like him before so how did he know her?

"Naruto-kun had mentioned he had befriended a very kind and pretty pink haired girl called "Sakura-chan". I have been searching for you ever since!" he claimed happily. She was so going to pound Naruto for getting her into this mess! The blonde honestly didn't know when to keep his mouth shut and Sakura was seriously contemplating the idea of shutting it for him _permanently_.

Sakura blushed when he said "pretty" but couldn't help herself asking, "Why?" she blurted. Then she recoiled in horror when he gave her the thumbs up while flashing what he supposed was a dazzling smile but in Sakura's case it felt more like a freaky show of his white teeth.

"My name is Rock Lee!You are beautiful and I love you Sakura-san! Will you go out with me? I promise to protect you with my life!" he asked boldly unaware that a certain Uchiha was currently sending death-glares in his direction, or maybe he did but decided to ignore them, instead he concentrated on the girl in front of him who was shaking uncontrollably.

"NO WAY!" she yelled. Then she immediately felt bad afterwards when Lee's shoulders slumped down looking dejected. "I mean! It's not your ugl-" she stopped, saying he was hideous was probably going to make him feel worse and she decided to rephrase her sentence, "I mean, you're nice and everything but uh...you're just not...my cup of tea you know?" she said softly, hoping her rejection didn't hurt him too much. The guy was nice, maybe a little too overenthusiastic but she wouldn't mind becoming friends with him, providing he took off that obnoxious green outfit and wear something sensible when she was around. He surprised her when he looked up at her, a new light in his eyes and something told Sakura this probably wasn't a good sign.

"I see! Somebody like myself is currently not good enough for a pretty girl of your caliber! I shall continue to train my body as much as possible and then pursue you when I have become stronger!" he said happily, obviously happy of his new goal in life. She sighed exasperatedly but decided to nod along to the charade.

"LEE!" Gai roared.

"Yes sensei?" he saluted.

"In recognition of your new goal in life, I shall reward you with a new mission of running 500 laps around Konoha using your hands only!" he bellowed loudly. "Is that clear?"

"YES SENSEI!"

Sakura refrained herself from covering her ears, why were they so damn loud? And what the hell was that about 500 laps? Was that even consider as a _reward_? She saw Itachi stare at Lee with a weird expression on his face but it was gone in a flash as he turned to give her an amused look, it as almost his way of saying "_haha._" She gave him another one of her icy glares.

"The lotus of Konoha will bloom by the next time I see you Sakura-san." said Lee. Then he took one of Sakura's hands gently, much to the amazement of her and Itachi and planted a light kiss on her knuckles. Sakura could almost feel Itachi's deathly aura trying to suffocate the oblivious boy and she resisted the temptation to laugh. "I shall see you again sometime Sakura-san." Lee smiled and then charged off with Gai to goodness knows where, the forests probably, to do handstands she mused.

Itachi stared after Lee. This was not good, the boy was infatuated with Sakura and if were Sakura to fall for him - not that he thought she would since she looked a bit disgusted with his choice of attire but there's the chance is still there – then his plans would be ruined and he would not allow that to happen.

He looked down at said Kunoichi and noticed she was still a little bit flushed from the meeting with Lee and he hated to admit it but _kami_, she looked so _cute_. As if on cue Sakura looked up quizzically at him, wondering why he was staring at her with such a strange expression, he gave her a smirk instead which was like the trigger to her random changes in emotions as they rapidly faded from confusion to annoyance. She huffed before walking forward again and he decided to follow even though technically she should be the one following _him_ but he let that slide for today.

"Oh my God!" somebody yelled. Then Sakura heard the sound of footsteps running and the grunts of people who were shoved out the road by the rampaging blonde. She gasped when she saw who the blonde was.

"FOREHEAD!"

"Ino...pig?" said Sakura in disbelief. She had never imagined she would see her best friend ever again and couldn't help the tears that were escaping her eyes, she wiped them away angrily knowing Ino would tease her for being such a crybaby but Ino surprised her first by grabbing her into a suffocating embrace.

"I missed you forehead! It's awfully boring in the shop without you, I don't even have anyone to tease any more!" Ino wailed loudly. Sakura's shoulders drooped slightly, that was what Ino missed about her? Then she smiled, it was just _so_ like Ino. "Where the hell did you go? All I knew was my mom telling me that you had to go work elsewhere faraway....and you didn't even bother saying goodbye to me! Some kind of pal you are!" she said accusingly.

"HEY! It wasn't my fault! I..." she faltered. What was she going to tell Ino? She didn't want to rat out her mother being a horrible woman who sold her own daughter but she couldn't exactly blame the Uchiha when he was standing right next to her.

"Yamanaka-san." said Itachi politely with a nod. "Uchiha-san." Ino replied and bowed slightly. Then Itachi startled them both, "I will be over there Sakura." he pointed then he left the two girls together. It was almost as if he had read Sakura's mind and was allowing them to catch up and chat about Sakura's current...circumstances. She grimaced, it was going to horrible but at least she didn't have to do in his presence.

"Okay forehead, start talking." said Ino eagerly. Sakura sighed, Ino hadn't changed at all, still the same bossy gossip lover but that's what Sakura liked her, she was always truthful and despite all the teasing she knew Ino cared greatly for her.

"Well it kind of started like this..." she began as the two continued down the market.

-

"Wow...that was the best story I've ever heard for this month!" said Ino in delight. Sakura groaned, how typical of her to think it was gossip material. Ino noticed Sakura looking unhappy and said, "Hey..no worries forehead, I ain't going to use this as gossip." Then she huffed grumpily when Sakura looked at her with surprise. "I might be a gossip lover but I'm not that evil enough to sell out my best friend." she said and stalked off.

Sakura groaned, she was the one who needed cheering up from all this mess but now she had to be the one to cheer Ino up. She smiled, _just like old times_ she thought. Sakura ran up and gave Ino a heart-warming crushing hug, the blonde taken by surprise recovered pretty quick and gave her a hug back.

"It surprises me to say this but..I missed you too Ino-pig. It's just not the same as it was." said Sakura quietly, a little sad. Ino gave her an incredulous look. "Are you kidding me forehead? You're Uchiha Itachi's personal maid! Note the "personal" part, how can you be sad when you're working right beside a hottie? People would die for such a chance!" Ino said in disbelief, shaking her head at Sakura like she was mad.

"I didn't have a choice!" she shot back hotly.

Ino pretended she didn't hear Sakura. "You know, you must be pretty special if Itachi saw something in you. He's not famous for being kind and saving innocent girls by bringing them into his house as maids, you must have something about you that quirked his interest, I wonder what it is?" wondered Ino. Sakura sighed exasperatedly.

"It's not what you think Ino." she said.

"Well what is it?" Ino asked.

"It's...actually..I don't really know myself." Sakura said honestly. Why did Itachi pick her of all people to be his maid? It just didn't make sense but she didn't want to think about the matter just now. "So." she asked Ino, "Been on any missions lately?"

"Yeah, just a rubbish one though. Mom started to get suspicious and I had to lie and tell her I was with Chouji and Shikamaru all day. Well that wasn't far from the truth so I won't count it as lying but ya know.." she waved it off.

"No I don't know actually." then she laughed as Ino frowned at her.

"Quiet forehead, you know what I mean!" and she elbowed Sakura.

"Ow! That was sore Ino-pig! Oh,by the way, how's it going with Shikamaru?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing. The lazy ass is too busy being lazy to give a crap about what I want to do." she said tonelessly while Sakura just looked at her sympathetically. Everybody knew Shikamaru was as lazy as heck but Ino often put the guy in his place, she just had that much influence over him. Actually Ino pretty much has influence over a lot of people, she shuddered to imagine what happened to anyone who got on the bad side of Ino.

"I'm sure he's just busy with missions lately."

"No, I asked him to come shopping with me the other day and he said he had a mission so I was like "fine okay" then I saw the lazy fuck lying in his back garden watching the damn clouds! Unbelievable! Seems like the clouds are more important than I am!" she huffed angrily then she grinned mischievously, "I'll get him back for that!"

_Ouch_, Sakura felt sorry for Shikamaru. She knew what Ino's shopping trips were like and didn't want to wish that much misfortune over her poor boyfriend but he should have known better to hide in his back garden of all places, she didn't want to know what Ino had planned in store for him. It was probably going to involve something painful. She yelped when she felt somebody's hand on her shoulder.

"We're leaving now."

Sakura had been so busy in her imagination she didn't notice Itachi slowly sliding his way up behind behind her. She scowled at him for interrupting her chat with Ino.

"Oh, is that the time already? I gotta go now too forehead, I'll talk to you later...okay?" said Ino uncertainly moving forward to give her a goodbye hug.

"For sure." Sakura confirmed before returning the hug, she was going to see Ino again whether Itachi liked it..or not. "Seeya." Ino nodded and then headed off into a different section of the market.

"I meant what I said." she said to him, he gave her a nonplussed look. She sighed, "I'll be seeing Ino again." she explained when he continued to look at her with confusion, then he nodded. "Aa." She presumed that meant "okay" in Uchihaese.

They continued to walk in silence back to the carriage and Sakura was just about to get in when she heard an obnoxious yell that could belong to no other than-

"Naruto." she said smiling at the blonde boy who was panting from running up to catch her. "Sakura-chan~!" he said while getting ready to pounce her for a hug, he was thrown about thirty three feet backwards, destroying a few stands and smashing into a wall before he could complete the action.

"That was for telling Lee about me." she said nicely while cracking her knuckles again. Naruto whimpered quietly as Sakura made her way towards him. "But-EE!" he yelled when she suddenly darted forward in his direction.

"This is my thanks about Ino." she whispered in his ear as she hugged him. He looked her surprised, "You're not going to hit me again Sakura-chan?" he asked. She rolled her eyes at his stupid question , "What do you think idiot?" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, ha ha." he said.

Sakura grinned at him, "You doofus, Ino told me all about how you went to find her after you saw me in the market the other day and she's been wandering around ever since hoping to bump into me."

"He he, no problem! I'd do anything for you Sakura-chan! Remember that time you helped me steal-" he was cut off abruptly when Sakura slapped her hand over his mouth and hissed. "Don't mention it ever again!" She looked nervously behind her at Itachi who was eyeing them curiously. Naruto caught the look in her eye and paled when he saw the Uchiha a distance away. "Oh shit-" he was rewarded by Sakura slapping the back of his head. "No swearing in front of a lady!" she yelled at him.

"Wha.?" he began before gulping nervously as Itachi came up behind Sakura, "Uh...hello..erm..Uchiha-san." he said, trying to keep his voice straight but couldn't help how it had risen a few notches.

Itachi nodded at him before turning to Sakura who was glaring daggers at him. "Sakura. As much as I hate to interrupt this important conversation of yours, it is about time we left." he said nonchalantly. "I shall be waiting for you in the carriage, do not make me wait." he said as he turned around with a sweep of his cloak and strode down back to the carriage.

Sakura sighed, she said goodbye to Naruto with a promise that she'll see him again and hurried to catch up with the Uchiha.

She couldn't help but smile though, what she thought had been a crap day turned out pretty good indeed.

* * *

Sakura hummed quietly as she set the dinner table, there was a guest tonight at the Uchiha household and that had set everybody in a panic because of the short notice. Rumour was that the guest was a high ranking noble who was close to the Elder Council. Sakura didn't like the sound of that, the elder council was comprised of two old foggies who didn't care about other people except themselves, she remembered Tsunade showing her disgust at their selfish decisions and she had to agree with her shishou on that matter.

A little while ago when she was still a noble, there had been a horrible outbreak of the plague in the civilian area of the capital, Tsunade had insisted on spending a large amount of the royal funds in purchasing medicine and hiring doctors to help the civilians as well as creating a team of researches to target the source of the outbreak and do their best to eradicate it. But the council had objected to her hasty decisions and refused to let her near the funds, they decided it was better to confine the infected individuals in a secluded area of the capital and let them die so the plague won't spread. Families had been torn and many had died as a result, the Queen had pleaded with them countless times but with no avail, they refused to budge and she could do nothing except curse them everyday for their stupidity.

As a medic, Sakura could go help heal those who were ill but she was forbidden by the council since she was a noble and they couldn't risk the plague spreading within the nobility. She yelled, argued and eventually pleaded with them to let her save the dying people but they still refused. Once she had tried to sneak out of the house but had been captured and kept locked in her room until the plague had subsidised but by then millions had already died.

She sighed softly as she finished with the table, the guest was due to arrive soon and she was to report back to the kitchen as soon as she was done. Her next job would be to serve the meals so just now she had nothing to do except wait. Normally serving wasn't part of her job but the maid in charge today was ill and they desperately needed a replacement, they were relieved when Sakura volunteered to help out, anyway how hard could it be to put a plate on a table?

Itachi saw her sitting alone on top of a box just outside the kitchen and made his way towards her.

"Sakura." She flinched before looking up at him then relaxing when she saw it was only Itachi.

"Yes?" she asked raising a brow curiously.

"Our guest today is of utmost importance and it would not do if you decide to erupt into one of your....unintelligible tantrums." he said tonelessly.

"I won't." she said calmly.

"Good." then he turned and left. Somehow he doubted she would be very calm when she found out who the guest was but he had made arrangements that avoided her meeting the guest and only then did he relax.

Little did he know, his arrangements had already been ruined when the maid fell ill and Sakura had volunteered to replace her.

* * *

"Sakura!" one of the maids yelled.

"Coming!" she hurried towards the kitchen table where the plates of steaming food had been laid out.

"Serve the soup first in the center and then the salad diagonally right, do not get it wrong!" ordered the cook.

"Yes,yes I already know after the 100th time you've told me." she said lazily as the cook narrowed his eyes at her.

She lifted the first tray and left the kitchen to head towards the dining room. As usual the place was adorned with flowers and decorations, it had also been scrubbed from top to bottom immaculately but what surprised her most were the normally bare walls had now been covered with expensive works of art, probably bought recently to impress the guest. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at such a blatant attempt in sucking up to the nobility.

Itachi paled when he saw her come into the dining room. _What the hell is she doing here? _He thought frantically. He had been in charge of selecting the staff for the work tonight and had made sure her name wasn't on the list!

Sakura noticed Itachi had gone a lighter shade in colour when she walked into the room and she frowned. Why was he so surprised to see her serve? Just because she was his personal maid that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to volunteer for extra work!

She wanted to see what the guest looked like but couldn't because his back was faced to her. Oh well, just as well he was sitting directly in front of Itachi and she was in charge of serving them both, she'll get to see his face when she comes back with the second round. She gently placed the soup and salad in front of the guest, her eyes glued to the table as her hand shook a little. Itachi had been staring at her ever since she came into the room and it was starting to intimidate her a little.

"Oh, this looks lovely." said the guest. Sakura froze. The voice was so familiar but it couldn't be...?

She bowed quickly and practically ran back to the kitchen to grab Itachi's share before darting back to the dining room. This time she walked very slowly to his side of the table, eyes glued to the food in front of her again, she was afraid if her suspicions were confirmed before the food reached the table, she would not hesitate to throw the food at the guest.

Itachi looked at her, she had paled considerably since the guest had spoken and he knew she had already suspected who the voice had belonged to and was trying her best to keep her emotions under control until she confirmed her suspicions. He noticed she was shaking and her eyes had been glued to the food. He sighed inwardly, it was going to be messy.

She placed the food in front of Itachi, the porcelain thudded a little louder than usual since Sakura couldn't help her fingers that were trembling and only went they had left her hands completely did she look up from the food.

And straight into the eyes of the man who destroyed her happiness, torn her family into shreds and made her life become a living nightmare.

* * *

**Author's notes**

I really did want to update earlier than usual this week but I felt 8 pages was a little short so I decided to leave it till I hit the week long deadline which gave me time to extend the chapter another 10 pages. This chapter is so far the longest I've ever written, even more than chapter 3 :O since it's a total of 11k words without the author's notes.

Oh and please welcome my new beta reader Llama-Chan! She's my friend in real life who is currently doing part time beta-ing for me when she has free time ^^ I'll still be updating every week but I'll also be going back and replacing old chapters with newer editions to make it easier for new readers(and old readers :P)

On a side note, my Bio exam went quite well(I hope) and now I'm about to start another practice prelim paper for Maths D: So have fun while you can guys! When you hit my age it's all about exams and feeling suicidal D: My first practice run at a maths paper was horrendous and I got a total of 46.5% which was undoubtedly a solid D in order words a fail. Brilliant.

**Even a simple "I adore this fic" would make me a very very happy writer.**

**And happy writers update fast :O**


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